Ash's Bizarre Misadventures
by ToBlazePurple
Summary: Trainers have always had this knack of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Ash Ketchum has had this universal trait cranked up to eleven. So much in fact that people are having a lot of trouble figuring out if he either causes or correlates with the chaos around him, and by proxy, everyone that meets him.
1. Ep 1: Poor Unfortunate Soul

The playground was on fire, and it wasn't Ash Ketchum's fault.

Okay, maybe it was. In his defense, he was doing his best to stop a bunch of kids playing with matches on top of the slide. He just didn't know his shoe laces were untied and that he tripped on them and accidentally fell on the kid holding a lit match.

But because of that, for a total of two days, Ash was known as Firecracker.

I say two days because on the third day Ash heard something leaking and accidentally caused a pipe to burst and flooded the kindergarten room.

The kids tried to name him Waterloo but that name only stuck for one day when on a really stormy day…

…by now you're starting to get it, aren't you?

Ash has either caused or just so happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. You would think that after certain events, kids would give him a new nickname along the lines of Dis-Ash-ter or something kiddie like. However, it seemed whoever tried to come up with a new name, ended up suffering the most in the next unlikely event that Ash's presence triggered. So everyone in Pallet Town tended to just go with the flow at whatever misfortune Ash caused. It gave the boy a normal, but rather interesting, bully-free life.

However, despite his odd luck, Ash Ketchum was and still is a simple soul whose dream was to simply be the best there ever was.

He couldn't wait until he was ten years old to start his epic journey to be the best there ever was.

However, nine year old Ash Ketchum had faced his greatest challenge in his life yet—probably ever.

"… _as of this moment, the age of legal trainers has been bumped up to 13 years of age. Trainers who received their license before this law must surrender their ID and wait until they are of age to regain—"_

"NOOOOO!" The raven haired boy cried out in disappointment after hearing the world wide news from the television. He thought that when he turned ten, he would only have to wait a few more months in order to be able to get his first Pokemon and start on his epic journey he's been anticipating for almost all his life.

But apparently life had to get in the way and push his goal even further away just before he could start it.

"Ash, please be quiet, dear. You shouldn't disturb the neighbors." Delia Ketchum sighed deeply as she saw her beloved son seem to reach a mid-life crisis while being a kid. It is a dark day when a nine year old realizes how cruel the world can really be.

The young raven haired boy turned towards his mother with tears on his eyes. "I was so close! My tenth birthday was one week from today and then this happens!?"

"Life is about how you react to circumstances, Ash. You can still get your Pokemon one day, so don't lose hope yet."

Her kind, loving, and inspiring words really impacted the young raven haired boy's life at that moment.

"… WAAAHHH!" And then Ash started crying. At least he tried to be quieter as he planted his face into the couch… or he might have lost the will to sit up and just let gravity do its thing… hard to really say. But Delia did feel bad for her son. He was looking very much forward to his Pokémon journey.

While ignoring the running TV, and the increasingly muffled and desperate cries of her son, Delia Ketchum had an idea.

* * *

"Ash," Delia began with a smile as bright as the morning sun when she tried to wake up her son. "Happy Birthday! You're ten years old now!

While Delia was a shinning beacon of light, her son was in unspeakable gloom that seemed to even dim the sunlight.

The angsty Ash covered himself with his blanket and turned away from the window of his room. "What's the point? I'm not 13 yet..."

Delia rolled her eyes. "Yet you act like an overly dramatic teenager already..." She whispered before huffing up and putting her hands on her hips. "Ash Ketchum, get up!"

Ash knew better than to resist his mother's word and groaned as the light was forcefully returned to his face when his blanket was taken.

"It's your tenth birthday, and I want you to get dressed. We're going to Professor Oak's lab."

That seemed to instantly snap Ash out of his stupor as he got up. "W-What!? We're going to Professor Oak's!?"

Hook-line-and-sinker. Delia swore her son had a one track mind. "Yes, now hurry up."

"B-But I thought trainers have to be 13 years old now!? Why are we going there?"

Delia gave a smile to her son. "It's for your birthday present, now come on, don't be late!"

Ash was somewhat hopeful as he found himself quickly changing and cleaning himself up. The rules now clearly stated that trainers needed to be 13 years of old to start their journey now. But as he and his mom started to go into Professor Oak's lab, the young boy started to get nervous, but at the same time hopeful.

When Delia knocked on the door, Professor Oak answered and returned the smile. "Ah Delia! Ash! I've been expecting both of you. Come in! Come in!" He said as he motioned the two inside his lab.

No longer able to hold it in anymore, Ash half asked, half blurted out, "Professor Oak?! Why am I here? To get a Pokémon!?"

"No, no." The renowned man said kindly with a laugh. However, before Ash could look disappointed again, he continued. "Your mother asked if I could use an assistant."

"Assistant?!" Ash looked to his mother who only smiled. This was his birthday present? Professor Oak was cool and all but to be his assistant? Why did his mom think that would be a good idea?

"I think it was a splendid idea." Professor Oak was either very good at reading people, or was really lucky with his choice of words, either way he elaborated more as the three of them entered into the living room. "I was told that like my grandson, Ash was also feeling down at his chance at being a trainer moved farther than he expected."

The old man laughed at the thought before solemn realization was on his face. "Wait, but he somehow got his driver's license before his Pokémon one when one has to be at least 18 years of age to take the test, which was twice his age until recently... and he was planning to use a car to drive out of Pallet Town when he got his Pokémon!? That boy sometimes… I worry for him."

Ash raised his brow since he knew who the renowned researcher was walking about. "Gary can drive a car?"

"I choose not to think about it too much, it saves many future headaches." Professor Oak motioned the others to sit down among the couches. After they did so, the old man cleared his throat. "Now, Ash, the reason why I need an assistant is because I'm getting old and it would be nice to get an extra pair of hands helping around the building and teaching a few things here and there."

The young raven haired boy couldn't help but frown. All his hopes were up for some kind of loophole to get him to start being a trainer, but instead to find out he was working here? He knows he isn't always the most behaved son, but why was his mom doing this form of punishment?

Professor Oak continued to talk. "And I'm sure the more energetic Pokémon here would also love to play with you."

This would be the time where Ash Ketchum would hear the sound of a record being abruptly scratched.

"Pokémon?" The boy repeated with sudden interest.

The old trainer nodded before continuing. "Why yes. There are many Pokémon at my ranch for either research or for storage of older trainers that still travel around. I'm mostly alone with them, so having a new helping hand would benefit me and them greatly." Professor Oak closed his eyes, but slyly opened one of them to peek at a very focused Ash.

"If you joined, you could get to interact with many Pokémon for the next three years until you start our proper journey."

Ash stood up with stars practically in his eyes. "Really!? I can be with Pokémon!?"

Professor Oak nodded with a rather calm smile. "Yes, you can. So what do you say? Would you like to be my assistant?"

"YES!" Ash didn't waste a second before looking around. "So where's the Pokémon!?"

Delia and Oak shared a laugh before standing up as well. Ash was lead towards the back where Professor Oak opened the door, and outside was a place that was filled with many different Pokémon as far as the eye could see.

"Ashy?"

The raven haired boy was brought back to reality hard when he heard that familiar and partially egotistic voice. He turned his head, and against his wishes, he saw Gary Oak standing nearby holding rake and wearing a special get up.

"What are you doing here?" The brunette seemed to eye the ravenette with caution.

The boy pointed back to him with equal or more obvious disdain. "I should be asking you that!?"

Before the two could butt heads, Professor Oak cleared his throat to get their attention. "Behave you two, you'll both be working together."

"WHAT!?" The two boys shouted at the same time before pointing to the other, "I have to work with him!?"

The old man remained sagely and calm despite the obvious synchronization of the two boys. "You were all disappointed when the age limit was bumped up before the beginning of your journeys. And taking care of Pokémon now was the closest thing you can do to help pass that time. I will teach you all that I can about Pokémon, and that in turn can help all four of you have a head start when your journey can begin."

The two were disgruntled at the fact they had to work with each other, but they both knew that working with Pokémon was more worth than stomaching their rival _—_ wait a second.

Ash blinked. Then repeated what old trainer just said in his brain. He raised his brow when he recalled that the renowned scientist said a word that didn't make sense. "Professor, did you just say four?"

"Oh right, two more would have been trainers are coming here. With all the things to do here, even the two of you could use a helping hand." There was a buzzing from the man's wrist that made everyone look at it. He had a digital watch and a thoughtful look was shown across the face of the professor when he looked at it. "And it appears they're here now."

Everyone followed the Professor as he soon opened up his front door again. Behind the door there were two girls around Gary and Ash's age.

One girl was a scarlet haired girl wearing a black bandana that covered most of her head, wore long-faded jeans, a Poké ball belt, had black traveling boots, a long sleeved white t-shirt and wore a black vest over it, to finish off her 'don't mess with me' look, she had black fingerless gloves and a rather annoyed stare with her emerald colored eyes.

The other girl was somewhat the opposite. She had a gentler look with short silver hair. This young girl was wearing pink running shoes, black pantyhose, and wore a purple skirt. Her upper torso simply consisted of a light purple turtle neck shirt with a Poké ball symbol on her left hip. Her ruby red eyes glanced around but then widened when she saw Ash's face.

Ash, and also Gary, looked on with surprise when he saw the two girls. Gary gave a quick frown while the raven haired boy smiled and waved at the two of them. "Hey Emily, Mary." He addressed the red head as Emily and addressed the silver haired girl as Mary.

Mary seemed to brighten up… or technically light up like a tomato at the simple hello. "H-Hi-Hi A-Ash!"

The raven haired boy tilted his head. "Huh? Mary, are you still sick?" He asked with obvious and oblivious concern.

"N-No," The silver haired girl seemed to suddenly find the floor very, very interesting to look at, so much in fact that she just decided to look at nothing but the ground and her feet. "I-I'm fine."

(Aah… youth.) Both Delia and Professor Oak thought inside their heads.

"Mary," Emily sighed before she spoke up. "I'm surprised you're here, Ash. Mister Ego here I understand but…" The red head leered at Gary as she said this.

Gary returned a leer but then his frown turned into that of a smug smirk. "This coming from you, Vertigo?"

The red haired girl practically growled to the point it could scare the greatest of dragon types.

It then occurred to Ash that he forgot that nicknames flew a lot among the kids here in Pallet Town. Though, it might have been his fault that the energy used to try and label him as a kid just channeled into finding what to call other people.

Professor Oak decided to step in before the girl tackled his grandson like a stat boosted Pokémon, "Alright, alright. Settle down everyone. Now, I'm sure everyone is briefed correct?"

Emily calmed down at the wise professor's voice and folded her arms. "My uncle told me about it."

Mary raised her hand afterward. "My parents were told by Ms. Ketchum."

Professor Oak seemed to take that as enough. "Well alright; come along you four," He said as he turned back into the lab, "Just because none of you can begin your journeys, doesn't mean I can't teach you about the exciting World of Pokémon."

All the kids followed after Professor Oak. However, Ash stopped in place before he turned his head and saw his mother silently wave goodbye with a smile. Ash, seeing that it was time for his mom to leave, went back out and hugged her.

"Thanks Mom."

Delia was momentarily surprised, but returned the hug to her son with a warm embrace. "Now be good. And clean yourself up when you come home later."

The raven haired boy broke the hug and ran back inside, talking as he did. "I will! See ya later mom!"

When Ash closed the door behind him, Delia couldn't help but feel as if her son was already leaving on his journey.

* * *

And just like that, three years did pass by. The four kids practically had a secondary school with Professor Oak, but with more focus on Pokémon than anything else. It was much like going on a journey without having to leave the ranch. The large acres held many, many types of Pokémon that the kids could experience with. They learned much from the renowned scientist, who was clever enough to teach some of the most amazing things such as Mega Evolution and Z-crystals, and even had a Nurse Joy come in to teach how to care for sick Pokémon and themselves, so it felt like a better version of Pokémon School.

There were even days where Ash's abysmal luck had brought secluded adventures in the ranch. (Just note that Professor Oak has now made sure there would be no future 'Civil Wars' among all the water Pokémon in the lake.)

However, now all four kids were now 13 years of age and waiting for Professor Oak to give them official starter Pokémon.

…

Ash tilted his head as he stared at a very intricate machine, or rather… what was on it: a Pokémon Egg. The young boy checked the instruments of the machine, but the signs showed that it was just still inactive, pretty much the same as it has been the past year they first received the egg from Professor Rowan, Samuel Oak's colleague.

It was supposed to have a rare Pokémon that could actually sense emotions, but the egg has shown no signs of hatching. Though Ash couldn't help but feel a sense of pity towards the egg. He didn't know why, but ever since it came, he had done nothing but talk to it as if it was already awake, treating it as he would his friends.

Well a good friend anyway. His 'friends' he was 'studying' with were… different. Gary outright called him dumb for talking to an Egg and that he was wasting his time; Emily didn't really care either way; and Mary… well she was more supportive, but Ash could tell that the idea of talking to an egg because it seemed lonely didn't quite sit well with her—or did it? Ash could never understand girls. But could eggs really feel alone?

Either way, Ash felt a bond with it. He hoped that it would hatch and they could play together, but seeing as how he was going to be traveling soon, it didn't look like it was going to happen.

Then, Professor's voice echoed through the building. "Alright, kids, come here!"

Ash turned back to the egg after hearing the professor's voice. "Alright, buddy. I gotta go, but I'll come back, I swear!"

The raven haired boy left the incubation machine, not knowing that as he left, the usually inactive egg jumped once as he left.

Ash followed Professor's voice towards the living room as he and the others all gathered around.

"Now these three years have been long," The man sighed. He originally thought having more hands to help here would make his life easier, not harder with Ash and Gary's daily battles with some Pokémon in the ranch they could convince to battle with, Gary and Emily's constant bickering, and he wasn't even going to mention the times Mary 'suddenly lost balance' when Ash was around during precision needed tasks. "But finally, you are all at the age where you can become trainers."

The kids all gave a short cheer before Professor Oak continued. "As such, the new batch of starter Pokémon will appear tomorrow."

From loud cheering, to stunned silence, the children stared at the old man with anticipation.

Professor Oak saw the look on all of them. From being disappointed, they had now all prepared themselves for their journey that was just tomorrow away. It was alright for them to feel a little nervous, they would finally leave this small but peaceful town and into the world they had been preparing for three years.

However, after two more seconds, Gary broke the silence with a laugh.

"Finally! No offense gramps, this place was fun, but now I can finally make it so I can be a Pokémon Master!"

Ash was first to jump up with passion. "Hey! If anyone's going to be Pokémon Master, it's going to be me!"

Gary smirked at the black haired boy's declaration. "How can you say that if I beat you more times while you had other people's Pokémon!"

Ash gripped his fists and pointed back to his rival. "They weren't your Pokémon either!"

"Ha!" Emily cried out to catch everyone's attention. "No offense, Gary. You're good, but you're nowhere near my level. If anyone's going to be the first Pokémon Master, it's going to be me!"

Mary stayed silent, but she too had reasons why she wanted to be a Pokémon Master.

Professor Oak laughed at the four of them. "Such a lively bunch you are. Now go home, all of you. Come here early tomorrow morning at six for your first official partner. Be sure to get a good night's rest and don't be late."

* * *

"I can't believe I'm late!" To say that Ash Ketchum ran out of his home would be an understatement. The boy practically was possessed by a million Olympic runners as he instantly realized he accidentally destroyed his alarm clock during his sleep.

The young teen didn't even bother changing out of his clothes before going in speeds that put the fastest of Pokémon to shame.

Eventually, Ash ran up to Professor Oak's lab at noon and practically almost busted through the door.

"P-Professor Oak!" He gasped and went in.

As he came in, he instantly saw three empty bowls and small floor pillows on a table with Professor Oak seemingly cleaning up the living room.

The professor himself seemed startled as he turned around. But when he saw it was Ash who had finally come in he sighed and frowned. "Oh, Ash, off all the times to oversleep."

The words almost sounded like defeat. However, even though the young teen was having this horrible feeling, he still asked what he hoped wasn't obvious by now. "A-Are there any Pokémon left!?"

The professor sighed and shook his head. "If you were here five hours earlier, you would have known."

"Known what?" The raven haired boy swallowed his spit instinctively after repeating that.

Professor Oak looked at the boy with the most comforting face he could muster. "Ash, there was a miscommunication with the order," The professor began with a frown. "I asked for four Pokémon, and I only received three."

Time seemed to stand still for the boy with crazier bed hair than usual. Considering the facts that there was four of them; that there were only three Pokémon; and that he was super late; everything was adding up to a bad answer.

"What?"

*Crack.*

"We did wait for you, but unfortunately you took too long. I told everyone that came early that there were only three Pokémon, and seeing as how there were only three trainers at the time…"

*Crack.*

"Everyone got theirs already?" Ash asked in disbelief. But at the back of his mind, he might have done the same seeing at how badly he wanted to start his journey.

"I'm sorry Ash, there's no Pokémon left."

*Crack!*

"Is there really none?" Ash asked almost desperately. He couldn't believe it, he had missed his trainer journey—the thing he had been dreaming off his entire childhood ever since he knew what dreams were—for the second time because of circumstances beyond his control.

For the first time in his life, Ash wondered if he really was cursed. At first, he didn't really mind it, it was an inconvenience to him, but he sometimes enjoyed the adventures that would come to greet him at random intervals, but now? Had his strange luck finally screwed him over?

* **CRACK!** *

At that time, both people had heard the almost glass cracking sound even where they were from.

Then there was frantic beeping in the room where the Incubator was. Ash and Oak quickly ran to the machine to see that the egg was now bouncing around inside the incubator! Soon the egg suddenly stopped its erratic movement and then started to glow brightly. As the light died down, the egg had cracked into pieces, revealing the Pokémon inside.

With a piece of egg on its head, a newborn Riolu yawned widely while wiping his eyes with his right paw.

"Oh wow, you're finally awake!" Ash said as he instantly went to work on lifting the incubator and picking up the small blue jackal. "Nice to meet you, buddy!"

The small Pokémon seemed to look at Ash and smiled very wide at the presence of the boy with bed hair that made his hair look even crazier.

Ash then sighed and looked back to Professor Oak. "Any way professor, when can I get the next batch of Pokémon?"

The older man blinked. "Excuse me? Are you going to wait? I was under the impression that you would ask me to let you take Riolu for your journey."

Ash looked like he really wanted to, but then he looked to Riolu and started rubbing his head. "I do, I really want to. But you said that Riolu was important for your research right? I don't want to make things harder for you."

That surprised the old man. Here was a boy so desperate for his own journey, but he would not sacrifice the sake of others for his own personal gain. Samuel Oak did not expect such a mature act from the teenager Ash.

… Maybe… just maybe… Ash was more than ready for his Journey than he originally thought. He may not be the most responsible and a bit of an air head, but there was clear potential of a good person in the budding teen.

"Ash," The professor began which caught the attention of the boy. "Would you like Riolu as your starter?"

"W-What?! B-But you said he was for research?" Ash asked with confusion.

The old man gave a small smile. "It's alright," he then bowed and lifted a hand towards the Riolu who also seemed to study Professor Oak for a second before smiling and putting his paw on the hand of the older man. "I believe this little one would be better observed out in the world where there are countless people than just being locked here in the lab."

When Oak looked up, he saw this unbelieving look on Ash's face. "So how about it? Would you like to start your journey?"

Ash looked like he was about to tackle the old man and repeatedly thank him for the offer. However, instead of actually doing that, the raven haired boy looked back at Riolu.

"Hey… Riolu…" He inhaled deeply. "Would you like to come with me on my journey?"

The small emanation Pokémon seemed to tilt his head then he smiled and nodded at the question.

Ash was so elated, he scooped up the RIolu and hugged both him and the professor and the blue Pokémon in one go and then proceeded to thank them both repeatedly.

"Alright, alright, calm down boy." Professor Oak patted the boy's head. "Now come on, get changed already, you shouldn't start your journey looking like you just got out of bed."

Ash then remembered he was still in his pajamas and realized his mom must have been worried for him. He turned to Riolu and extended out his hand to his new partner. "Come on, Riolu! I gotta introduce you to mom!"

However, neither Ash nor Professor Oak noticed the emanation Pokémon's eyes glowing for the briefest of seconds when he got on top of Ash's shoulder and touched his head.

* * *

"I'm sorry I didn't wake you up sooner, sweetie," Delia said as she and Professor Oak were seeing the young boy off at the edge of Pallet Town. "I was tending to the garden all morning! I thought you left earlier and just assumed you were doing some last minute errands with the professor!"

"It's fine mom." The young boy didn't hold it against her since it was mostly his fault to begin with. The new trainer looked over to Professor Oak.

The older man handed all the essentials for a new trainer, their Poké Dex, five Poké Balls, a guide handbook, and a note pad and a pen for writing data on how Riolu acts.

"Well my boy, that's everything." Professor Oak finished.

Ash inhaled deeply and then went to give his mom one more great, big hug. "I'm going to miss you mom."

The mother seemed to be doing her best not to cry. However, all the strength in the world was failing her. "I'm going to miss you, more. Promise me you'll change your underwear every day?"

"Mooommmm!" Ash playfully pushed himself away from his mother after saying that.

Yet, Delia bent over and kissed her son on the forehead, knowing that it will be a while before she could do that again.

"Be safe."

"Mom, I'm always safe!" The unluckiest boy in Pallet Town claimed proudly as he and then Riolu ran up towards the hill, waving goodbye to the two of them.

Ash turned back towards the hill, excitement building up as he was soon to pass by the sign that said, Welcome To Pallet Town!

"This is it, Riolu!" Ash cried out as he saw the sign in mere feet away from him and growing closer by each movement. "We start our adventure here! Are you ready!?"

'Yeah!'

Ash's first step out of his town, his first step to his epic journey he's been anticipating ever since he was young, was finally taken—and then halted at practically the same time as the young boy turned around towards the small blue Pokémon in disbelief.

"Did you… just… say something?"

The Riolu seemed surprised and tilted his head. 'Uh yes? Is something wrong Ash?' A young but serene voice that sounded like it was coming in Ash's head that sounded nothing like his own answered him.

'Ash?' The Riolu began as he noticed his new Trainer do a strange action. 'Why is your mouth hanging so wide like that? Are you trying to eat something?'

It seemed like that not only did Ash's journey begin, the young trainer's strange misfortune was also just getting started.

* * *

+Author Notes+

Hello everyone! This is my first Fan Fic! I hope you all like it. I've always enjoyed Ash Stories, but I always wanted to put my own twist in it. I know Riolu stories are done a lot, but I couldn't help but feel excited when reading them.

This was inspired by two stories I love: Ashes of the Past by Saphroneth, and Bizarre Misadventures by PhantomGalaxy13. I'm sure a large majority of you know Saphroneth's story, but PhantomGalaxy13 (Or he goes by PG-13) helped out beta this and he's pretty friendly. (Albeit it takes forever for him to respond—joke, thanks PG-13!)

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this story. I kindly ask you to favorite, follow, and review this story please.


	2. Ep 2: Day One

Ash Ketchum, now beginning his Pokémon journey, had to momentarily stop it to confirm what had just happened no sooner than he took one step out of town.

After gaping in disbelief for a good few seconds, and after some dirt flew into his mouth and made him choke and cough a lot like a fool, the new trainer pointed to his new partner. "You can talk!?"

The newborn Riolu nodded his head despite looking a bit baffled. 'Yes, I can. You've been talking to me for a year haven't you? Can I not do it?" He asked innocently.

"N-No! No! I mean, you can talk—it's just that I wasn't expecting you to talk in a language I can understand! How are you doing that!?"

Riolu raised his left palm and a small blue glow was seen. 'I guess I know by genetics, but our species have this thing called Aura, and basically some of my evolutionary line are so in tuned with this spiritual power, we can communicate with other species.'

Ash absorbed all that information like a sponge. "Soooo it's like magic?" Okay, he was still having trouble with big words. It's not his fault he was one of the slower people among the four.

Riolu thought about it for a bit. 'I guess it is. All it does though is allow me to sense emotions and maybe in the future increase my physical powers. Other than that, I don't think Aura can summon cheese at will.'

"Cheese?" Ash repeated with confusion. He hears Pokémon talking for the first time and one of the first thing he explains is a dairy product?

Riolu's eyes seemed to light up. 'Yes! I have always been fascinated with the food item, cheese! Especially when your mother gave us that heavenly meal!'

Oh wait, Ash did recall that his mother had prepared a late breakfast/lunch and had ordered some of his favorite cheese pizza along with the feast yesterday after he got Riolu. The raven haired boy thought back to when Riolu seemed to take a slice and then stop eating after his first bite. So that didn't mean he didn't like it?

"Oh? You mean Pizza?" Ash began before he noticed Riolu looking at him with this trance-like look. Was he going to be okay?

'Pizza… such an exotic word!' Okay, maybe Ash had accidentally made Riolu addicted to Pizza. Ehh, it shouldn't matter too much. According to Professor Oak, Pokémon can eat human food.

"Well okay." The trainer scratched his head. Talking to Pokémon was actually pretty cool after his initial shock died. "You know, I just remembered, what moves do you know? I heard from Professor Oak that Pokémon can learn four to eight moves. He said more and more Pokémon seemed to be breaking the cap of how many moves they could learn or something, and I wanna see if your one of them."

As he said this, Ash picked up his Poké Dex. The device scanned Riolu and showed that the fighting type only knew four moves: Quick Attack, Force Palm, Foresight, and…

The raven haired boy raised his brow. "I've never heard of Vacuum Wave before."

Riolu, in response to the attack name, snapped out of his imaginary bliss and tensed into a fighting stance. He raised one palm and curled it to a fist. His sights locked to one tree in a distance and then he suddenly punched the air in a fast motion. Ash saw something move in the air before he heard a cracking noise coming from the tree. As he turned, the new trainer noticed the tree had a fist shape indentation on its main trunk.

"Oh wow! The move shoots a pressurized punch of air? And it's super fast too!" Ash gushed at the super cool move his new friend could pull off—

'Who dares attack a member of the Fearow Clan!?' A shrill voice pierced the air as out of the tree Riolu attacked, an angry Spearow flew out with a look of murder in its eyes.

Ash blinked as he realized he could hear Fearow speaking like a human. "Wait, why can I hear him talk?"

Riolu pointed to his head. 'I sorta activated your mind to do that.'

Ash realized why his head felt a little funny when Riolu first rode on his shoulders. The boy looked to the smaller Pokémon in surprise and asked, "How did you do that?"

The emanation Pokémon seemed just as lost as his trainer since he shrugged his shoulders. 'Instinct told me to.' Unfortunately for Ash, he had no time to really question that.

For a few seconds, the duo had forgotten they had pissed of a proud, self proclaimed warrior. And then those eyes of murder turned to Riolu and Ash. 'Know your error, outsiders! You fight one with the power of storms!'

Before the duo could even apologize, the flying type flew with impressive speeds right for the two, forcing Ash and his Pokémon to split up to avoid the hit.

Spearow flew back up, getting ready to retaliate to those he thought were originally attacking him.

Ash tried to scream out that it was just an honest mistake, but the Spearow was having none of it as it swooped down for Riolu a second time. This time, the fighting type wasn't fast enough to avoid the speed of the flying type and was hit dead on by the speed of the moving Pokémon and was toppled down easily like a skipping rock.

"Riolu!" Ash panicked before he ran up to the little guy and tried to help him back up. The trainer looked back up to see any sign of the flying type and incase it attacked again. "He's not listening!"

'Ash, I don't think we have a choice, we're going to have to battle!' Riolu then got back up, went forward away from Ash, and then entered into a fighting stance against the wild Pokémon.

The raven haired boy really wanted to have his first battle, and now he was having it. He just wished it wasn't in these conditions where he was accused of attacking someone blindly. "Alright!" Ash stood back up as well then he looked to his opponent above.

His experience back with Professor Oak started to kick in as the raven haired trainer focused squarely on the battle in front of them. "Riolu, listen. Avoid every attack as much as possible and try to knock Spearow down from the sky with Vacuum Wave!"

The fighting type did so, launching around several waves of pure vacuum at the avian opponent. However, the flying type seemed to move even faster and avoided all attempts to knock him down.

Ash then recognized the increasing speed of the Pokémon. That wild Spearow was using Agility to continually increase its speed!

This would have been a problem, but Ash recalled one of the moves his new partner had would be really useful here. "Foresight!" Ash cried out and Riolu's eyes started to glow. Then, Riolu fired another Vacuum Wave that instantly hit its mark and made the Spearow lose balance. However, the loss of balance was momentary as their opponent was quick to regain composure midair.

Riolu was now pressing the attack. The flying opponent could no longer avoid his opponent's hits, but at the same time the attacks really didn't seem to slow down the flying type. Instead it just seemed to get angrier and angrier.

Suddenly, the Spearow started to ascend high, before seemingly turning over at his highest point and start to descend—did he just disappear!?

'Gah!' Riolu cried out as Spearow suddenly rammed into his stomach and smashed the fighting type back into the tree that was originally attacked. Pieces of wood fell on the fighting type when he bounced off the trunk.

"Riolu!" Ash cried out before he suddenly recognized that move. One of the higher level flying types in Professor Oak's lab used it as a signature move: Aerial Ace, a move that allows a flying type to move so fast that it's impossible to avoid and packs a wallop. He didn't know the wild Pokémon could learn such a powerful move.

Spearow flew back up high, obviously priming to use the attack again. Riolu seemed to be holding on, but that hit had brought the fighting type to his brink because of how super effective it was against him.

Ash started to panic. What could he do? Riolu was too imbalanced to launch an attack fast enough to stop the Spearow before the fighting type would be knocked out. The trainer was too far from his Pokémon to run up and use a potion, and lastly, their opponent was about to pull off another Aerial Ace.

The young boy didn't want Riolu to get hurt! There had to be something—wait. There was something left Riolu could pull off, but the problem was that it was a complex order it Ash couldn't be able to explain it fast enough for the fighting type to pull off!

However, to Ash's surprise, Riolu was already moving. He covered his fist with dust and sand and then prepared himself in another fighting stance despite how worn out he was.

The second before Spearow hit his maximum speed, Riolu then punched the air right in front of the path of Spearow's attack, signaling that he was using Vacuum Wave. After the attack was launched, Spearow disappeared, but half an instant later, Vacuum Wave hit something some distance away from Riolu—it was Spearow. He was still moving fast, but now he could be seen and his eyes were closed and teary because it looked like the dirt Riolu covered his fist with was also launched with the pressure of air.

Ash acted quickly and ordered, "Now! Force Palm!"

Even though Spearow was moving fast, he could be seen now, and he was obviously distracted with his eyes forcibly closed. This gave Riolu the opportunity to shoot his open palm right for the incoming flying type and squarely hit him down to the ground.

Dust flew from the impact, but Ash didn't care as he ran up towards his Pokémon. "Riolu! Are you alright?!"

As the dust settled, Riolu was seen coughing and banged up a lot, but still standing. A little ways from him was an obviously knocked out and paralyzed Spearow.

'I-I'm fine…' The fighting type then groaned as he put one of his paws near his ribs. 'He was super tough though.'

The raven haired boy was baffled at the move Riolu did to slow down the Aerial Ace move, not because it was elaborate, but it was the same idea in his mind that he was unable to explain to his Pokémon on time! "Riolu, how did you know what to do when Spearow was about to use his Aerial Ace move a second time?"

'Y-You told me.' The emanation Pokémon gasped which made the confused trainer fish for a potion in his bag.

"I told you?" Ash started spraying his partner with healing medicine. "How? That order I was thinking was too complex to explain it to you in time."

'I… sensed it from you.' Riolu began as he eased up a little more. 'I heard it from you? I guess?'

Ash tilted his head. "Is this more of that Aura thing?"

'Yeah… yeah! I think… I feel as if that the stronger the bond between a Riolu Evolution line and a trainer, the more they are 'linked'—or can practically know what the other is thinking. It's why… I felt you giving orders before I was defeated.'

Ash thought back to that moment. He was so afraid for Riolu and wanted to do almost anything to get him out of that situation. Did that empathy connect them?

…

How was he going to explain all this to Professor Oak?

'Guh…' Ash and Riolu looked down at the Spearow that seemed to be gaining consciousness again.

The raven haired trainer seemed to brighten up and fished his bag pack again. He took out an empty Poké Ball and pointed it at Spearow. "Riolu, we won our first Pokémon battle with wild Pokémon! We can catch this guy and add him to the team!"

'Uuuuhhhh, do we have too? He's kinda scary?' The small fighting type groaned at the thought of being with this guy for a long time.

'Pleas…'

The duo turned to Spearow who seemed to be struggling hard to talk. So hard in fact, it looked like he was… crying?

'Please… don't capture me… I… I can't leave now. I… musn't… my… people… my…' The Spearow gasped in pain as it tried to move, but it's weakened and paralysis stated made even the smallest of movements very painful.

Ash was surprised. From proud and warrior like to now crying and begging not to be caught? It was strange, but Ash felt bad for the guy and curious as to why he seemed so desperate.

The raven haired boy sighed and put away the empty Poké Ball. He fished for his bag and took out his only Full Heal and another Potion.

He used both medicines on the fallen flying type. Almost instantly, the Spearow could now move and had his energy returned.

The fierce flying type looked at himself in disbelief and then looked up to Ash Ketchum. 'You healed me?' His voice was cautious but he seemed far more relaxed now.

The young teen rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah well, we're sorry for disturbing you in the first place. It was more or less an accident."

Fearow stared at Ash in an unreadable manner. 'Strange, I just realized I can understand you clearly. I find it much better than the usual gibberish that comes out of your mouths.' It seemed like that the flying type was not at all surprised at the thought of a human speaking to him fluently. 'Perhaps, I was wrong. Perhaps, we were wrong.' He began before to the surprise of the two, the proud warrior seemed to bow his head.

'Fleshy thing! Blue Guy! Please, allow me to beg for your assistance!'

'Fleshy Thing' and 'Blue Guy' turned to each other with obvious bafflement on the names. However, the Spearow was basically asking for help.

"First of all, my name is Ash and this is Riolu," Riolu nodded his head furiously at Ash's real introduction. "Second, what help are you looking for?"

Spearow got back up, looking determined now more than ever to the duo. 'Our leader is fallen ill and grows worse by the days! Your human gadgets have healed me, so can they do the same to him!?'

Ash thought back. He had just used the only Full Heal Professor let him have. He did have some berries that helped with status ailments but…

"I'd have to check, can you bring us to him?" Ash was not going to let a cry for help go unheard while he was there.

Spearow nodded thankfully and then spread out his wings. "Follow me!"

The flying Pokémon led the two towards a thick forest area. However, the bird Pokémon didn't stop there. He led them deeper into the forest until they had reached a very large and old tree. The tree had giants roots that spread across a large area, and had holes all across its trunk that seemed to range from big to small, new to ancient, functional to useless, and it was filled with a large flock of Spearow that were now all focusing their glares at both Ash and Riolu.

The Spearow that was leading the two landed on top of one of the roots and shouted. 'I have returned! And this Flesh Bag before you has a chance to heal our Chieftain!' The proud bird pointed his wings towards Ash as this was declared.

"Again with flesh thing?" Ash raised his brow and whispered to Riolu.

'I think it's better than being swarmed by all of these guys.' The Emanation Pokémon countered while standing closer to his trainer.

The duo then slightly panicked when a large group of Spearow started flying from their spots. However, they soon realized that the flock wasn't moving towards them, but towards the bottom of the giant tree. Many of the Spearow seemed to hook their talons on small grooves across a certain area and then they all started to fly while holding on to the groove into the tree. Ash and Riolu stared as it looked like the group of Spearow was opening a large door that was cleverly hidden in the massive trunk of the tree.

The original Spearow that fought them turned to the outsiders and pointed a wing towards the inside. 'They have allowed us passage. Now make haste!' He said as he started to fly ahead of the two.

Riolu and Ash shared a look before they both decided to walk after the Spearow they beat. As they entered, the two were surprised at how much bigger the tree seemed like on the inside. There were even more hollow nests inside, along with even more Spearow watching them all intently. As they kept walking, they reached the center of the tree and boy was it a sight to behold!

The tree was for some reason hollow in the center and seemed to go up for like a mile or so. Around the walls was something like indentations that looked like a complete spiral slope/stairs that led to the very top of the tree.

The Original Spearow motioned a wing above, which meant that Riolu and Ash would have to start their climb. The two continued their ascent up to the top of the tree and as they kept climbing they noticed that more and more of the Spearows… looked kinder, smaller… and there were more nests filled with eggs and berries.

"Whoa," Ash said as he looked at one nest that held like a dozen Spearow Eggs that was beign guarded by two tough looking flying types. "This place is like its own society. Professor Oak and Mary would have loved to see this!"

Very soon, Ash and Riolu finally reached the top of the tree. If everything surprised them before, the knowledge that the top of the tree looked like some giant stadium with a specialized spot at the very top with a talon-drawn marking of a powerful bird.

Beneath that marking, there was a Pokémon that stood out among all the others. It was far more massive than even the bigger Spearow here. If Ash recalled, it was a Fearow, the evolved version of the Spearow here and it had a persence that could practically defeat anyone it would just look at.

Then the original Spearow bowed, prompting the newcomers to do the same—especially if one wrong move could lead them trapped among countless flying types.

However, the two heard the Fearow screech a mighty screech that silenced not only the top, but the rest of the tree.

'Spearow! What is the meaning of bringing outsiders to our home land!?' The Fearow barked with a voice of sheer command and power.

'Chieftain!' The one who brought the two exclaimed back and raised his head. 'These outsiders, they have the ability to heal! I have brought them in order to help your condition!'

Riolu and Ash shared a look. That Fearow was the chieftain that Spearow said was growing weaker by the day?! He sure as heck did not give off that impression!

The Fearow growled then descended down in front of the trio. Only the Spearow didn't flinch as the big bird Pokémon glared at one of his clan.

'Healer!?' The Fearow squawked like a demon from the fiery pits of hell. 'Do I—the Great Fearow—seem weak to you?!'

Riolu and Ash were practically frozen as the two birds glared at each other, neither showing a sign of moving.

However…

'Cough! Cough! Hack!'

Fearow was first to break the stare down as he looked away, coughing in a sound that even the two outsiders could tell was not healthy.

'Yes, Chieftan,' The original Spearow said as the Fearow continued to cough. 'You need help!'

The leader seemed to tense at the last word the smaller one said. 'Help!? If anyone, especially those gutless Pidgeys, hears of us being weak, they will attack our home for sure! I do not need it!'

However, to the surprise of the duo, it seemed like it was the first Spearow who was crying. 'You grow worse by the day, father! At the rate we are going, you will be lost for sure and there will be no one to protect our clan!'

Another unexpected surprise popped out. Riolu and Ash had met the child of the Chieftain himself!? Wait, was that why he was begging not to be caught? He was worried for his people?

'You ungrateful!' The Fearow began before he started coughing violently once more. After that fit, he turned back to the serious, yet teary-eyed face of his offspring. '… Human, are you truly a healer?'

Ash started to feel tense as all focus suddenly shifted to him. "I-I took lessons in first aid and Pokémon first aid." He blurted out. Oh thank whatever being up there that his time in Professor Oak's lab was nothing like how he would sleep in normal school.

'Then make your move. I am too weak to care.' The Fearow said as he relaxed—slumped even. All image of fear was now gone from the boy. His compassion started to rise as he saw the strong and proud Pokémon seem weak just like when they first beat his child… err not really a good string of words to blurt out without context.

Ash felt a hand on the head of evolved Pokémon and instantly removed it. "Whoa! You're almost hot to the touch! You have a fever that deep and you've been trying to shrug it off!?" It spoke volumes at how strong Fearow really was… and how stubborn he was to fight it like that.

The young boy got to work on what he knew in case a Pokémon were to ever have a fever. He made sure the Fearow actually rested and was made sure to stay warm, not too cold or too hot. Even some of the other Fearows started to help as they made a blanket of leaves for their Chieftain to be comfortable.

Ash worked with what medicine he had, and whatever Pecha Berries were around the tree, seeing as he was taught Pecha Berries help stave off symptoms of fevers besides instantly curing Pokémon poison. With everyone's help, the Fearow seemed to finally be better off.

When there was a break allowed, Ash called for Riolu and the offspring of the Chieftain to meet privately.

'I cannot even begin to thank you! My father looks better than he did in the days before!' The Spearow gladly smiled.

However, to the Spearow's surprise, Ash wasn't as hopeful as he. "Look, Spearow, I need to tell you something and you have to promise that you won't… overreact."

The raven haired boy noticed the bird Pokémon seemingly steeling himself. 'Speak, Ash. I shall listen.'

Well if he was finally saying his name, it was really serious. Ash gathered the same strength and said, "There isn't enough medicine."

'What?'

The young teen elaborated. "Spearow, I was only given a limited amount of medicine when I started my journey. In one day—my very first day actually, I've practically gave it all to your father. And here comes the next problem, even if I were to leave and get more, there's a chance that the medicine will run out faster than me and Riolu can come back."

'W-We can wait!' Even Fearow was unsure if they considered anything could happen while Ash was gone. Perhaps even the attack they feared would happen the moment the medicine ran out.

'Is there anything else we can do?' Riolu asked his trainer.

Ash seemed to think before he seemed to realize something. "There is one thing, but it's a stretch."

'What is it?!' The child practically jumped on it after hearing another option.

The young trainer took out his Poké Dex and made it open up a picture of a Chansey. "These Pokémon are you best bet at healing your dad even better than me. They're known to be natural healers and can help ease the most serious of sicknesses of Pokémon. It's why they're almost always with a Nurse Joy in my society."

'Then we shall find one!' Spearow began.

It seemed like Ash was expecting a different answer to that as he then said, "So you don't know where one is?"

'With everyone working together, we can!' Spearow seemed determined, but who could blame the flying type? His father's life and the safety of his people were at stake.

'I thought you guys said that you didn't want any of your enemies to find out about your Chieftain being sick?' Riolu pointed out. 'If the Spearow Clan were to search en masse for a single Chansey, it would alert how vulnerable they actually are without their leader and strongest member.'

Spearow seemed to understand how bad this situation was getting.

However, Riolu cleared his throat. 'Actually, it would be bad if you guys could get one. But not for me and Ash.'

Spearow looked to the fighting type with confusion. Then the blue Pokémon elaborated more, 'I have the ability to sense living energy. I've never met a Chansey before, but with the description Ash just gave, I think I've sensed a healing-like aura not too far from where we are.'

"Healing-like aura?" Ash repeated the weird choices of words while Spearow had a more urgent reaction.

'You have!?' Spearow shouted out loud.

'Yeah, but we have to move now and with few numbers if we have any chance at convincing her.'

That didn't seem to deter Spearow, in fact it seemed to only pump the dual type's blood up after hearing that. 'I see! Then we must make haste!'

The three of them agreed that it would only be them that would go, as to not attract too much attention. Not long after, Riolu did spot the Chansey picking up berries from a nearby Oran Tree.

"Hey! You there!" Ash was the first to call out to her. It seemed to surprise the Chansey, but with how Ash was waving at her, it seemed like she calmed down just as fast.

However, her calmness seemed to go away when she saw Spearow with Ash and Riolu. The Normal type seemed frightened by the flying type, to the confusion of the other two.

"Whoa! Hey calm down, we're not here to hurt you!" The teen cried out as he showed both of his hands to the pink Pokémon.

'Y-You're not?' Chansey then turned back to Spearow.

"We're all not going to hurt you, right?" Ash turned back to the flying and normal type who nodded their head.

'But isn't that one of the Spearow Clan? That group of Pokémon take whatever they want from other Pokémon?' Riolu and Ash were somewhat surprised by that statement, yet at the back of their mind that did explain why it looked like they had so much food. The clan of Spearows was actually a gang though?

But still, Riolu and Ash did their best to calm her down and say that they weren't going to hurt her.

Instead of seemingly trying to tell her she was wrong, Spearow then did something no one was expecting: the flying type planted his head into the dirt and prostrated himself in front of the normal type. 'Please! I beg off you! We've only done things for our survival, and while we're not always on the right, I do not want to see my Chieftain die!'

Chansey and the others seemed impressed by the act of humility that Spearow was willing to go for his father. It really resonated with Ash most of all as he deeply wished he could have… no, it wasn't the time for those memories.

The Chansey was silently moved by the act of humility from the flying and normal type and eventually relented. 'Alright, take me to your father. I can't really say no to someone in need.'

The trio was overjoyed that they were able to succeed in their miniature but important quest. They didn't hesitate to lead the normal type back to the tree.

However… none of them noticed—and Riolu was too distracted to use his scanning ability—that there was a nearby Pidgey who had heard everything, especially how the great Fearow was ill.

* * *

Ash and Riolu felt proud that they were able to help out those in need, even if they were described to be somewhat of a gang… but hey! It always felt good to help! The Chansey was now looking after Fearow and with her here, the boss of the flying Pokémon was sure to get better.

"Hey, Spearow," Ash began as they looked to the one who had brought them here. (Riolu thankfully could track specific essences and was able to point to him out of all the other ones here.) "I think it's time Riolu and I left. We have our own things to do as well."

Spearow flew from his perch. 'Wait! Don't leave yet! We must celebrate for your help! My father may have had worse fate if you were not here!'

Unfortunately for the offspring of the Chieftain, before anything else could be done, there was a shrill cry coming from one rather shaken Spearow who flew to the top of the tree.

Everyone stared at the horrified flying type as he blurted out, 'Chieftain! It's Pidgeot and her gang! They're coming at us with all their members!'

Those words made Fearow forsake any form of rest as he flew up back as if he was never sick or weak at any point of his life. 'Prepare for battle! Evacuate those that cannot fight! Fill the skies!'

The child of the Chieftain quickly flew towards their leader. 'Wait, father! You haven't been fully healed yet!'

'It is more than enough to protect our people!' The Fearow said nothing more as he spread his large wings and with one flap, practically shot out of the top of the tree, prompting a large majority of fighting Spearow out as well.

'Father!' The First Spearow cried as he then flew after the rest of them.

The two outsiders looked to each other looking for some kind of answer. 'Ash, what do we do!?'

The trainer was at a complete loss of words. He had only heard about war in the history books, and he didn't want the chance to see one in action now. However, both of them then noticed Chansey at the opposite side of the stadium. She seemed to be doing much worse than they were.

'Oh no! Oh no! Oh no!' She repeated those words frantically as she ran in circles.

The duo ran up to her with worried look on their faces. "What's wrong!?"

She looked at them with tears in her eyes and a look of despair the two didn't notice before. 'If the Pidgey and Spearow gang fight, they're all going to fight to the death! Y-You have to stop them!'

The weight of those words hit the outsiders like that of being hit by a falling meteor. This wasn't the same old fights that were regulated and looked like a lot of fun. This was a fight to the death… a war.

That was something to be avoided at all costs.

Even though it was impossible, if there was one chance… Ash and Riolu had to stop the fight before it could even begin!

* * *

It was a cloudy night. It had to be. There was a chance even the higher beings dared not to witness the bloodshed that was about to be unleashed when two large clans of bird Pokémon filled the sky over the forest.

On one side: a clan of Pidgeys and Pidgeottos that were led by a powerful looking Pidegeot with a scar across her right eye.

On the other: a flock of Spearows of varying sizes and their still ill leader, Fearow.

'Pidgeot! Leave, before I scar your other good eye!' Fearow roared with a voice that didn't even show his weakness.

'Your words are as sharp as ever, Fearow!' Pidgeot returned with equal gusto. 'However, even now I see your movements are sluggish! Your tyranny over this forest ends today!'

'Spare me your grandstanding, Pidgeot! Your clan was far more ruthless and uncaring before I came to power and threw them out! And do not think that I even need my full strength to defeat you!'

The two seemed to be done talking, which only meant that the two miniature armies were about to clash.

" **STOOOPPP!** "

A loud voice cried out, making everyone look back towards the highest point of the tree where two familiar people were doing their best to be seen by everyone.

'Ash? Riolu?' The Chieftan's child looked in surprise as to why they had not left yet. Moreover, why were they trying to get everyone's attention!?

'Who are you, fleshy?' Pidegeot asked with confusion.

The young teen had caught everyone's attention. This was his chance to somehow stop this madness before it could even begin. "You can't fight! None of you guys should be fighting!"

Despite his well meaning words, they had no effect on the ones he was using them on. 'Excuse you!? You do not even know how deep this hatred goes! How can you just so plainly say that we shouldn't do battle!?'

"Because the reason why you both are fighting is also the same reason none of you should fight!" That paradoxical statement got everyone's attention and brought up only confusion until Ash shouted out and continued on. "I'm talking about your families! You're friends! Is this really what they want of all of you!? To fight and never return!?"

That idea seemed to make even the most hateful on both sides second guess themselves. Ash knew from Chansey that the Pidgey gang was surprisingly just like the Spearow gang when it came to their kind. He only hoped it would be enough to stop everyone from fighting each other.

'Our families can never be safe!' It seemed like it might have not been enough as Pidgeot glared back at Fearow. 'Not while our mortal enemies live and breathe!'

'For once, I agree!' Fearow countered back. The fighting spirit of both sides were coming back up, probably stronger than before if they now believed they were going to fight for their loved ones.

'Ash, get down!' Riolu cried out.

"No! We can't let them fight!" Ash desperately said as he tried to think of anything else that would get them to stop.

'Attack!' Pidgeot cried out as she began to move, her people ready to meet with that of Fearow's.

'Charge!' Fearow cried out in retaliation, no doubt moving ahead of his clan.

Ash looked on desperately. They were going to do it, they were going to fight to the death… and he could do nothing but watch?

No! No please! Anything but that! He didn't want to see other people hurt! He didn't want people to die!

He didn't want—

(Ash was two years old when he and his mother stood in front of a black coffin. There was a picture of a kind and loving man with a bright smile, but for some reason, looking at it made his mother cry and made a very young Ash feel like crying too.)

("Dad?" "Dada?")

" **PLEASE! STOP!** " Ash yelled with all his lungs, but despite all he could muster, Fearow and Pidgeot were about to meet each other with talons drawn.

Yet…

FSHOOOM!

Suddenly, the skies parted instantly, revealing the moon in all its glory… and…

Riolu looked at the sky in awe, as did everyone else. For the sky to suddenly part clouds and be clear was one thing, but for there to be a giant Pokémon seen above them all? It was unimaginable. Especially since Riolu thought he could sense Pokémon, but didn't even have the faintest clue that a Pokémon of that magnitude was hiding just above the clouds.

Ash blinked first out of everyone there. As he thought back, there was… something he recalled the professor saying.

Something about Legendary Pokémon? These Pokémon were so rare, that most people had gone their whole lives without even seeing them. Some were even considered gods.

Yet… his mind could do nothing but call the magnificent Pokémon before them as such.

A Legendary Pokémon… here?

The Legendary Pokémon cried out in a glorious voice then started glowing with all the intensity of the sun.

Everyone looked away and shielded their eyes from the light. And soon then, they felt that the light had vanished.

However, Ash had felt a strange glow coming near him and opened his eyes. To his surprise, there was a beautiful rainbow colored feather floating gently towards him. The teen had this odd sensation to reach out and catch the gently falling item.

The feather radiated with a strange rainbow light that glowed even in the night. However, Ash then remembered the fight and quickly looked back up to see both Fearow and Pidgeot just… glaring at each other.

'It seems… even the gods find our hatred despicable.' Fearow stated plainly.

For the longest of seconds, Pidgeot did nothing but scowl at Fearow while keeping herself up in the air. After a tense few seconds, she finally spoke up. 'Let us get one thing straight, Fearow: I despise you. I always will.' Pidgeot began but seemed to not act on her words. 'But even I admit that I grow tired of hating you. Maybe one day our clans might not hate each other and that does not seems like such a bad idea." The female leader said with closed eyes before opening up again. 'However, if we have any chance of real peace, we're going to have to make some changes.'

Fearow nodded. He didn't let up his glare but he did nod his head in agreement. 'I know your clan sometimes lack food. We are more than willing to share if you stop… loosen your hold on the river territory.' He rephrased his wordings.

'A treaty of sorts then? Or Ceasefire? I agree then.'

The two evolved leaders… then turned their backs on each other. This signaled the end of a fight that didn't even start.

Ash sighed in utter relief, but then looked back at the feather he had.

A thought occurred to him as he took in the beautiful item: what was a legendary Pokémon doing all the way out here in the boonies?

* * *

"Wow. The Spearows really know how to throw a party." The raven haired teen said in utter disbelief as all around him the Spearows were either flying around erratically, doing their interpretation of dancing on the stadium floor, or drinking what seemed like stolen alcohol.

Chansey was in a different area, mixing up her own concoction that would help Fearow grow better, so only Riolu and Ash were up there with the Spearow that brought them in there the first place.

'I know,' Riolu agreed as the two of them were some ways in the corner. 'I didn't even know Pokémon could party like this.'

"I mean still, they do have the right to party now." Ash pointed out as the Spearow Gang is now going to try to be more peaceful to their enemies. Hatred like that wasn't going to go away anytime soon, but it was a good start.

'Hear! Hear!' Fearow's voice boomed which instantly stopped the festivities. Everyone turned towards the Chieftain as he cleared his throat.

'I would like to begin by saying it is odd. This is the first time in years where I have felt relaxed… even hopeful. Tonight, we end our feud with the Pidgey Clan!' There was resounding applause—or in the case of the flying types, cries of agreement—in response to the Chieftain's exclamation. 'However, I am not the cause of this peaceful end. No, in fact, the true hero of this day… the one that has even gone against our traditions to ensure we would be safe to see another day… is none other than my child!'

Again, another resounding cry for the Spearow that fought against Ash and Riolu.

'And let us not forget, the outsiders that have helped in saving our home and lives as well!'

Ash and Riolu didn't know how to react to the cries of joy.

'As such, let us thank our heroes! The food is ready and they shall be the first to eat!'

Now that he mentioned it, Ash hadn't eaten since lunch and it was already getting late at night. The sound of food greatly appealed to him and to Riolu.

Three different Spearow came in with twig baskets that seemed to carry food.

Fearow continued to talk before they were served, 'I cannot even begin to thank you all for your contribution to we who do not even know you. You shall forever have our gratitude.'

"It's only natural for us to help those in need." Ash returned before the basket was placed in front of him. "Thank you for the food though—huh?"

Inside the basket was… a Weedle? Now that Ash had a better look, it wasn't just a Weedle, it was also a Caterpie as well. He just had trouble identifying it since they were both killed and had their bodies and guts mixed up together like bad mashed potatoes.

… Well that was disturbing imagery he didn't expect to see.

Riolu fought the urge to barf the instant he saw that the same two dead bug Pokémon were inside his basket.

'It is the very least we could do for you!' Fearow threw out his wings with animated vigor. 'We have also prepared our finest meals, the guts of bug Pokémon!'

Oh no, so much for praying and hoping that this was all some kind of mistake.

'Yum! These things are delicacies!' Spearow was so chipper, he almost sang that sentence. He then looked over towards the other two. 'Come on! Let's eat! The others are bound by honor to not eat until all three of us do!'

Riolu carefully raised his paw. 'Uhh what are the off chances of us… _not_ eating this?'

Spearow and every other flying type just stared in frozen silence at the fighting type. Riolu instantly regretted asking until every flying type around them burst into laughter as if someone had told them the funniest joke they had ever heard.

This act did not help the two bipeds in the slightest.

'An excellent jest, Riolu! I mean, to refuse our food would be like insulting us and our hospitality! And you all have proven by now that none of you are stupid enough to anger everyone here!' Spearow laughed again, as did the rest of the clan. In essence, there was a chance that they would forget about them being heroes the moment they didn't eat the food.

Not a single flying type noticed the duo swallow their spit harder than they ever did in their life with looks of horror and realization written on their faces.

After being done laughing a second time, Spearow looked at the three of them. 'Now come on, let's eat!'

Ash and Riolu looked back at their food of dead bugs. It was either to eat that or be their hosts' next meal.

…

Ash was the first to bravely reach his hand out. "Well, maybe it tastes good?" he said as he scooped a hand full of Bug type guts and ate it.

No, it did not taste good at all.

* * *

It was a beautiful morning! The Sun was shining! The wind breeze was pleasant!

Ash and Riolu were slugging around like zombies and groaning like they were about to die—wait what?

"Uhhhhh, I feel sick…" Ash said early in the morning as he and Riolu struggled to walk in a straight line out of the forest.

'Please don't remind me. Just thinking about last night was… horrible.' The sickly emanation Pokémon put a paw over his mouth.

'Maybe you two should go visit Chansey instead of trying to leave.'

The sound of the familiar voice made the two look up to see Fearow and his child perched up on a tree looking down on both of them.

"Oh. What are you two doing here?" Ash made a little more effort to stand up straight even though it was much harder than he imagined.

'I came to say one last goodbye and thank you for all that you've done.' The two were intrigued by the word choice of the Chieftain. He only emphasized himself, so what was Spearow doing with him?

"Us? But wasn't it the legendary Pokémon who stopped the war between you and your enemies?" Ash decided to point out instead. He didn't say this earlier last night because there really was no chance to tell the leader of the Spearow Clan otherwise. If he knew what meal was planned for him; however, the teen would have done far more to get to him sooner.

'The gods may have told us to stop, but you were the first to help us when I was too stubborn, and for that, I thank you once more.' Fearow then lifted a wing to wrap around Spearow, 'My child on the other hand, has something else to say.'

Spearow cleared his throat when the leader referenced them. 'Ash and Riolu, I wish to properly join you the two of you. Our battle has taught me more than I ever could imagine. And if I were to one day become Chieftain, I would prefer to learn more about the world beyond my home in the tree. Would you let me come with you in this human journey of yours?'

The duo looked at each other before smiling wide. "Sure thing, Spearow! Welcome to the team!"

Spearow looked absolutely thrilled to be accepted, but then he turned towards his father, and his father turned to him.

The smaller flying type flew into a deep embrace of his father and it was quite the sight to see a Fearow, known for their aggressive power, and hostile behavior, show unconditional love and tenderness to their child.

And then, he said, 'Goodbye, my daughter, my true pride.'

Ash felt tears coming near his eyes. "Oh this is soSPEAROW IS A GIRL!?" He shouted as the daughter word popped up.

'Why yes? I am female?' Spearow, who was apparently a girl the _entire time_ , turned to the two confused after breaking the hug with her father.

It was now Riolu's turn to point and shout in disbelief. 'What!? But your voice is so deep!'

Fearow boomed with powerful laughter. 'And she should be proud! The more powerful the voice, the stronger the warrior!'

"That is not how it works…" Ash meekly tried to argue. Now that he thought back, there was never a real way he could tell the difference between female and male Spearow… all of them sounded nearly the same!

Fearow turned to Spearow with an are-you-sure-about-this look. 'Your future allies seem rather… incompetent… if I do say so myself.'

'Not to worry father, as my vassals, they will shine on through after I'm through with them!' The female Spearow beamed with pride.

'Vassals?!' The fighting type repeated in disbelief. He was obviously still stunned at the fact Spearow was a girl this entire time!?

'Very well,' Fearow extended his wings and started flying into the air. 'Farewell! And may you become stronger each passing day!' He cried out before he flew out of sight.

Spearow flew towards the two with a rather stern look. 'Now hear me, Ash and Riolu! You are in the presence of the great Chieftain Fearow's only child! I will not stand for anything less than the presence of a commanding warrior to stand by! As such, it is time that I put you all in your place!'

"What!? But you said you wanted to join us! Not the other way around—"

Spearow used (very scary) Leer! Opponent Ash and Riolu were horrified! Opponent Ash and Riolu started running!

'Yes! Yes! Build your muscles! If you cannot fly like a proud Spearow, then you must be able to keep up with one!' Spearow cried out as the two continued to run in fear of their new teammate.

'Ash, is our entire journey going to be like this the whole time!?' Riolu asked as he ran to keep pace with his trainer's long strides.

The raven haired boy looked back, only to see that intimidating Leer once more that chilled his blood and then quickly turned back ahead and started running faster. "No, I hope not!"

Unfortunately for the boy… that was not his decision to make.

* * *

+Author Notes+

DAYUM! I was not expecting all the support this story would actually get. You guys are crazy!

But, I would to call to attention to one very overlooked detail here: did anyone notice that this all happened in _one_ day?

That's right! Except for the last section of this chapter, in day one of Ash's journey, he met with a tribe of warrior Spearows, took care of a sick Fearow, had to go hunting for a Chansey, tried to stop a war, witnessed a legendary Pokémon, and eat dead bug type Pokémon all in one day!

The title is literally named Ash's Bizarre Misadventures for a reason. I hope you all enjoyed this story.

Well, this is a small taste of what is to come for this story, interested? If so here's a little challenge: look for the time I called Spearow a 'Son'. (Spoiler: I didn't! I made sure that she was always called Offspring or Child, it was never mentioned she was a son!)

Anyway, thanks you all so much! But please, continue supporting this fic with Reviews, Favorites, and Follows! See ya soon!


	3. Ep 3: The 3 Gym Leaders

Of all the ways to enter Viridian City, getting chased by your own Spearow for hours was not considered one of those options.

It seemed like Ash Ketchum missed that memo.

The young teen was seen sprawled on top of a Pokémon Center couch with very little care of how stupid he and Riolu looked in order to stop the horrid feeling of being exhausted beyond their minds. On a table nearby them, Spearow was preening her feathers nonchalantly.

'We shall be working on your stamina daily! And then, we shall engage in combat to ensure that even the fleshy can fight alongside me!'

Ash and Riolu wanted to argue that, they really did. It's just neither had the energy to do other but groan.

After getting some rest, Ash, Riolu, and Spearow walked,or flew in Spearow's case, out of the Pokémon Center. This time, since no one was exhausted or focused solely on their comrades, the trio had a chance to really view the city.

For one, it was definitely bigger than Pallet Town. The young teen had a bit of a culture shock. Being out in the country side, you were used to grass plains as far as the eye could see; peace and quiet; and not that many people.

Viridian City was like the exact opposite, people nearly everywhere that it almost felt like a sea of humans, cars and people shouting over each other, and bright bill boards were attached to many of the buildings.

'Yeesh! You fleshies are everywhere!' Spearow, while perched on Ash's shoulder looked around and was obviously unnerved by seeing a lot of Ash's kind.

'That is technically how we felt when we were in your home.' Sitting on Ash's other shoulder, Riolu responded. 'At least we don't aren't forcing weird food down other people's throats.'

Spearow turned to the fighting type with obvious confusion. 'What weird food? Did you guys eat things off the ground or something? That's mostly on you two then.'

The emanation Pokémon wisely said no more as it seemed like Spearow was unaware only she and her clan ate dead insect Pokémon.

However, what the trio didn't know was that they were currently being watched.

Ash looked around before noticing some balloons fly into the sky with some flying Pokémon cleaning them up. "Is there an event here?"

It was then the boy had his attention caught by a poster near a building. It was a tri-colored poster with symbols in the shape of the three legendary birds of Kanto: Articuno, Zapados, and Moltres. Even though there were many commercialized products, this one poster caught Ash's attention simply due to the fact he swore he saw it before in the Pokémon Center before he sprawled himself on the nearest empty couch.

"The Three Gyms of Viridian City?" Ash raised his brow as he read this out loud. This city had three gyms? How exactly did that work?

Yet, Ash was rather excited to learn the very first town already had that many Gyms. After all, how could he get to the Pokémon League without badges? "Well, I guess we should challenge one of these gyms! I bet I can get three badges right off the bat!"

At this point, a young man with tanned skin wearing blue themed gear came right in front of Ash and his Pokémon.

"Hey there!"

Ash blinked. The sudden appearance of this person confused him, but he still responded to the greeting. "Hi?"

"I just overheard you wanting to challenge one of the gyms here in Viridian City?" Before Ash could even nod, the young man went on and pointed in the distance to a large white and blue building with the Articuno Symbol on it. "Then you should definitely challenge the Mystic Gym! It's filled with some of the most tactically brilliant trainers and Pokémon there!"

The teen seemed interested at the description of the gym. "Oh wow really? That sounds really interesting!"

"Don't listen to that Mystic Scum!" Ash and everyone else turned around to see a dark skinned girl wearing red themed clothes. "Kid, if you want a real gym with strong trainers and Pokémon, head over to the Valor Gym!" The girl said as she pointed over to the large building with a Moltres Symbol on it.

It was then that the first guy shouted out loud, "Back off, Valor Jerk! This kid is going to the Mystic Gym!" Ash was wondering why the blue guy was trying to speak for him when he wasn't even sure he'd go anymore. However, Ash and his Pokémon soon found out more blue themed people were coming behind the guy after he said that.

"You Mystic Punks were just trying to force him to go to your gym!" When the teen turned around, he noticed there was now a gathering group of red themed people.

'Aw come on, we just got out off a blood feud between two different groups!?' Riolu threw his hands out in the air as it seemed like both parties started shouting at each other and calling each other names.

The teenage trainer took this chance to leave since the rather hot blooded people were already taking out their Pokémon.

When they were in a safe distance away, Ash scratched his head. "Okay that was weird. What was that all about?"

Spearow, after flying to get away from the tense building situation, flew and landed on Ash's shoulder opposite to Riolu. 'I too wonder why I can understand all those fleshies when I was sure at least one of them would speak gibberish like normal.'

"Wait, you can understand them?" Ash looked to Riolu. "Did you do that?"

'Yeah. I think I did? Hard to remember really…'

Seeing as how Spearow seemed to understand humans, Ash spoke to Spearow again. "No, I meant why were those guys trying to get me into one of those gyms so much?"

Riolu shrugged at the rhetorical question. 'Who knows? There's something weird about those gyms then, isn't there?'

'Ah wait,' Spreaow pointed towards another building in the distance. 'Neither party talked about the yellow building, didn't they?'

"I kinda don't wanna run to the same problem again… but I really, really want my first badge." Ash blurted out his options.

Regardless, the boy made his way towards the large building with yellow themed colors instead. To his surprise, it looked emptier than he imagined.

However, the young boy tensed when he saw a young woman walk out with reading glasses in front of her green eyes, purple hair that was long enough for her to tie a sizeable bun at the back of her head, and yellow themed clothes that seemed styled like the red and blue people he had seen earlier. Then she spotted him and his Pokémon.

"Oh hello. May I help you?" The woman greeted with a smile.

Automatically liking this place for the obvious lack of overzealous people, Ash breathed a sigh of relief. This was momentary as his excitement came back and he declared, "I'm here to challenge the Gym Leader of the name of this gym that I was never aware off!"

Ash's two Pokémon looked at him weirdly. "What? I never actually found out the name of this place." The teen told his party.

The sound of the young woman giggling made the three look back at her. "Sorry, it's just… ah never mind. Our team Leader should be free for a gym battle inside. Just mind the mess."

Mess?

Despite the interesting choice of words, Ash followed the young woman back into the build—

"Holy!?" Ash cried out as he saw a lobby room filled to the brim with incubators filled with eggs. There were some other people who were wearing yellow who noticed the newcomer but seemed to get back to their own business.

"Hey guys!? Anyone see our Leader?" The purple haired woman asked as she shouted out loud.

"I saw him," One of the guys there pointed to a now empty spot. "Uhh, okay—no. I don't know where he is now."

Riolu, sitting on Ash's shoulder, pointed over towards an area not too far from the empty area, but was covered in incubators. 'I sense someone there.'

No sooner after Riolu pointed, something suddenly popped out of the many incubators like a Digglet. "A HA! Here you are, Burrito Soup, you wily rascal you!" He looked to be a handsome young man in his mid to late twenties with spiky, short blonde hair, pale skin, and deep blue eyes. Despite his looks, he seemed to act like a child on Christmas morning as he jumped out and started doing a merry jig after finding one specific egg.

The purple haired girl noticed the young man and then quickly called out, "Spark!"

When the woman wearing glasses called out to the guy, Ash's eyes widened and he quickly pointed to Spark. "He's the Gym Leader!? I thought he'd be older!"

The purple haired girl had a smile on her face that looked like she had been practicing that smile in cases where she needed to fake happiness. "I wish he acted at least half his age."

While the purple haired girl said this, Spark, the leader of the Gym turned around. "Oh, Jana! Who is that beside you? Come on in! I just gotta put this guy near his brothers and sisters… now where did I put Burger Lord and Condiment Princess?"

"Sir, please. You have a challenger." The adolescent named Jana calmly said as she pointed to Ash.

Spark looked back at the boy who then noticed the Pokémon on both of his shoulders. He moved up to the young teen quickly and pointed to him. "Whoa! You got both Pokémon on your shoulder! That's pretty cool dude!"

"Huh? Uhh thanks?" Ash didn't really know how to respond to that. However, his subconscious seemed to be taking cues from his mother's lessons as he then needlessly responded with, "I like your jacket."

"Wow! Thanks! I've been sleeping in this for like five days straight!" Well that was frank. The Gym leader of the yellow themed people then look back at Ash as he fixed holding an incubator he found. "So you want a challenge huh? How many badges do you have?"

"None. This is my first one."

Spark's smile seemed to grow brighter even hearing that. "Really!? That's super cool! Alright, let me get you my no-badge team!" He then spun on his heel and pointed towards a door that led to the back.

Ash blinked in surprise. "No-badge team?"

Spark seemed to pause at the question before a huge grin came across his lips. "It's my team to fight trainers based on the amount of badges they have. Like say you have three badges: trainers with three badges have at least half a team with stage one evolved Pokémon and have a medium amount of battle experience, so as a Gym Leader, I have to prepare a team accordingly to meet their strength level."

Ash and his Pokémon seemed to understand. Yet the woman assisting Ash looked impressed. "Great job Sir. You actually explained that very well."

Spark gave a small laugh and rubbed the back of his head. "Hey! Battling is a lot easier to understand than all those formalities Candela and Blanche do."

"Wait so," Ash began, making everyone look at him. "It's not your best team?"

The leader of the yellow gym was caught off guard for a moment. "No, it's not." He said honestly.

Jana sighed and spoke up after hearing that. "What is your name, challenger?"

"Huh? Oh it's Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town."

She acknowledged his name before continuing. "Believe it or not, the three gym leaders of Viridian City are all basically at the level of Elite Four and Champion with their best team."

The teen and his Pokémon seemed surprised at such a statement and then they looked at Spark who was scratching his cheeks with one of his gloved hands. "Oh come on Jana, you're kind of over exaggerating a lot."

She seemed to give a look of disbelief to her leader. "Sir, I am not. Ask anyone else and they'll say the same thing."

The young teen was shocked at the revelation. The young man in front of him was just as good as some of the best trainers in Kanto and Johto? "You're as good as the Elite Four!?"

Spark seemed actually hesitant to talk about it, but he did start speaking. "It's kinda a stretch to say that, but at the same time… I am confident enough to battle them toe to toe."

The young teen was in awe that someone that strong was in front of him. However, he turned to look at both Riolu and Spearow. "What do you two think?"

'I don't think he's lying about that.' Riolu mentioned and since he was the Pokémon who could sense emotions, it was more than likely that Spark was telling the truth.

'He doesn't seem very warrior like at all!' Spearow began before staring hard at the blonde gym leader. Spark noticed this and gave a kind smile and wave at the flying type. 'On second thought… there's something about him that reminds me of my father.'

Ash saw how powerful Fearow was. If there was something in Spark that made him similar to a powerful Fearow like that, then he really must have been that strong!

But if he was really strong, it meant that Ash was basically fighting him with a handicap. And that did not settle well with the boy. If he wanted to be the best, like no one ever was—then how could he fight someone of the skill of the Elite Four with a handy cap? "Spark, how many badges do I need to battle your best team?"

"What? Well, my best team? The rule between the three of us and Professor Willow was ten badges would be needed to challenge our best teams, but at the same time the highest record of getting badges in a single region was ten in one League period. During that time, our organizations didn't exist yet."

"Ten badges…" Everyone turned to Ash as he repeated it out loud. They all then saw him smile with a bright fire in his eyes. "Alright, I'll do it. I'll get ten badges before the League is over and challenge you before I get into the league!"

Ash's declaration stunned even the people outside back in the egg-filled lobby.

However, Spark seemed to be the only one reacting differently as he suddenly laughed a bit. "Whoa! I've never heard determination like that in a while. But I do have to say that there's an interesting rule about the three gyms here. If you take one of the gym challenges of the three, you can only take that one and not challenge the other two. It's to prevent trainers from getting three badges in one area. Which means you might have to go somewhere else if you really want to battle my best team."

That made Ash think hard. If that really was the case, he needed to get those badges much sooner! "Where's the closest gym besides Viridian City?" Ash instantly asked.

"Hey Ash?" Jana spoke up to catch the teen's attention. "I like ambition as much as the next person, but I think there are some things you're overlooking. Are you even aware of Teams Valor, Mystic, and Instinct?"

The young boy, and his Pokémon, all tilted their heads in sync.

Jana took that action as a resounding no to her question. "Ah. In that case: welcome to Team Instinct's Headquarters, or as you also know it as The Instinct Gym."

Ash did wonder why this building was bigger than he imagined when it came to a gym building.

"What are Teams Valor, Mystic, and Instinct?"

"I got this, Jana." Spark took over the conversation and started to lead Ash back to the lobby.

It turns out that it all started with Professor Willow, a renowned scientist that Ash heard Professor Oak talk about several times. Like most scientists, he wanted to research specific topics. However, instead of being like everyone else, he had the idea of spending his funding into his three promising assistants, the Gym Leaders of the three teams. The three assistants then took Professor Willow's idea—in getting more help in order to get more data—and ran with it. They created organizations: Teams Instinct, Valor, and Mystic to recruit trainers from all over Kanto to join in and be a part of something greater and positive for the world.

Now the total sum of members that The Three Teams have totals around a million, and they've only been active for a few years in Kanto alone.

Trainers joining the teams get a lot of cool perks such as discount in trainer goods, access to team databases that include battle records, Pokémon data, and great information and tips in areas all around Kanto.

"Wow! You get all those gears and perks for joining one of the teams?" Ash cooed in awe.

The leader of Team Instinct nodded with a smile. "Yeah, we're kinda like sports teams for Pokémon Adventuring!"

"Sir," Jana sighed after fixing her glasses. "That is a gross simplification of what the three Teams stand for."

"Tell that to Candela and Blanche! They've been bragging about which of their trainers are going to win the Pokémon League this year, and none of our members have ever made it to the top 16 of the previous few!" Spark actually pouted after saying that. He was obviously a bit peeved that no one form his team made it that far yet.

Jana shook her head before turning to Ash. "I know some people would like to go into their adventure blind and experience it all by themselves. But if you really are gunning to challenge our Leader, it's probably in your best interest to take every advantage possible to get ten badges quickly with help at your disposal."

Ash thought about it for a second. It really looked like a good idea, and his mother always said to never be afraid to ask for help. "Alright, can I join Team Instinct?"

"Wait," Spark of all people interrupted with a curious look on his face. "I'm just curious, why did you choose the Instinct Gym when in reality, both Mystic and Valor Gyms are more popular?"

In response to that, Ash thought back to his experience with that weird group of people that tried to sway him heavily into going into one of the gyms before and explained it to the Instinct Gym Leader.

"What!?" Spark seemed shocked and insulted after hearing that. "Now hold on a second! I admit that some of Blanche and Candela's followers are a bit zealous, but they shouldn't turn you away from seeing how great they are! I would like you to choose my team after seeing what the others have to fully offer!"

"Spark!?" Now it was Jana's turn to be surprised as she yelled to her leader. "Are you sure it's a good idea to turn away potential new members when Instinct has the lowest membership between all three Teams?"

"Come on, Jana, Ash should have a proper non-biased choice on which team he wants to join and that means that he should see the best what my friends have to offer!" Spark turned to Ash. "Please allow me to take you to meet my best friends. I wouldn't want you to make a hasty decision without knowing everything about all three teams since we don't allow anyone to switch over even if they quit."

Ash was surprised about that little tidbit. "O-Okay. What exactly is the difference between the teams?"

"Gimme a sec," Spark quickly dove back into a pile of incubators and after a few seconds, came back out with like half a dozen incubators attached to his back with rope. "Okay! Sorry about that, I always make sure to take some of these guys with me when I'm going out of the gym. Now, what was your question again?"

Briefly, Ash wondered how eccentric where the other two of Spark was this weird.

* * *

There were three figures in a dark alley way.

"Ugh! Why are we doing this in the middle of the day!? There are too many trainers and the Gym Leaders of all three Public Kanto Teams are only a few blocks from each other!" One shouted before kicking a can with enough force to pierce a hole through solid brick of an abandoned house.

"Their advantage is also their weakness." This person raised a palm that started to glow. The can came back out the hole and the shattered bricks seemed to fix itself as if it was never broken in the first place.

The can rolled to a third person's foot. Then they picked it up and made the aluminum item stand up on their pinky finger and spinning in place. "Sword is right, Morph. Our mission is not to wage war, but for reconnaissance. The last thing we want to do is alert some of the strongest trainers in Kanto, sans the Elite Four and Champion that we exist." The can was suddenly crunched by some invisible force however, it then started to change shape into that of a dagger with its point laying on the figure's pinky as if it wasn't even bothered.

This third figure flipped the aluminum blade and then threw it into the ground, shattering the aluminum item instantly. "Remember: after twelve years we've finally found traces of the dissenters. If our time is to come, they must be eliminated before they amass power to undo everything we've worked for. We are _not_ here to make any mistakes."

The other two remained silent after that.

"Good. We will wait for Shield and Spear to secure an escape route and then proceed as planned, are we clear?"

They nodded.

"Hey, Rattata!?" The three snapped their head towards one of the entrances. There, a child just ran in looking frantically around.

"Rattata? Rattata, where are you!?" the small boy looked around the alleyway, but so no sign of any living thing, let alone a small rat.

All that was in that dirty alleyway was some kind of shattered silver stuff scattered on the ground.

* * *

"We'll stop by here first." Spark motioned to Ash as he pointed towards the Mystic Gym.

Ash thought that besides the colors, the buildings looked exactly the same. Boy, was he wrong on that! The Mystic Gym was more filled with people than the Instinct Gym was and it was filled state of the art equipment!

There were people on hover boards, devices that looked straight out of something form a Sci-fi movie, and he even swore he saw people battling hologram Pokémon? Not only Pokémon, but there were these huge-eight foot tall, sleek and thin, robots that seemed to act like mobile training dummies. It was really like something out of a Sci-fi movie.

Spark lightly elbowed Ash out of his stupor. "Pretty cool huh? Blanche has always been the brainiac of our group. She's collected technology over the world in helping her research on evolution."

That is super cool, but at the same time— "… Why don't you have any of this stuff, Spark?"

Ash noticed Spark starting to sweat profusely. He then suddenly laughed in a way that seemed force, "W-Well it's not like I spend my funding on incubators for more eggs! Ahahaha…"

The leader of Team Instinct started coughing all of a sudden when he noticed Ash and his Pokémon staring at him. "Okay, let's go inside."

Despite being the leader of a rival Team, a lot of people from Team Mystic seemed to respect Spark. The two along with Ash's Pokémon ended up walking into an elaborate room with a giant holo map of the entire region with a blue themed androgynous female with white hair and tanned skin looking over it while holding a high tech tablet.

"Hello, Spark," the person began as she never took her eyes off her tablet or the holo map, seemingly processing data. "To what do I owe this surprise visit? I doubt you got your head stuck in a Shelder again."

"Thanks again for that!" Spark happily said instead of saying that he wouldn't do it again.

Blanche, the Leader of Team Mystic, sighed and turned around with a small smile. "I guess you wouldn't be you if not for that. Who is your friend?"

Spark lightly slapped Ash's back as he said, "This hear is Ash, and I'm showing him around all the teams before he chooses!"

The white haired gym leader looked to Ash with an unreadable stare before turning to Spark.

'Whoa, I didn't sense any emotion from her at all!' Riolu whispered near Ash's ear before Blanche spoke up.

"He came to you first? You should have recruited him in your team. You are the team with the lowest number of members." Spark's membership must have been a bigger problem than Ash thought if the rival team leader said the same thing as Jana a while ago.

"Aww come on, Blanche! It's fair he gets to know what each team offers first!"

Blanche sighed, obviously having similar conversations with her friend before that end in similar fashion. However, when Blanche looked at Ash the second time, she raised her brow and moved closer to stare at the boy.

"Uuhhhh?" Ash seemed a bit nervous at the intense stare.

Eventually, the white haired scholar stood back up and placed a hand on her chin. "I feel like I've seen you before. By any chance were you one of Professor Oak's recent assistants?"

Ash was surprised that she knew that. Did they meet before? Wait, Spark said that he was originally the assistant of Professor… Willow…

The young teen snapped his fingers. "Oh! We actually met before! Two years ago when you visited Professor Oak's lab with Professor Willow! I forgot about that!"

"It's alright. We were only there for an hour since Pallet Town wasn't too far from Viridian. Have all four of you started your journey? It does explain why one of you asked to join team Mystic quite recently."

"Huh?" Ash was caught off guard by that. "One of my friends is here?" Who was it?

Blanche picked up the tablet again and pressed a few things on it. "Ms. Maria Indra Sundance."

Ash seemed to smile when he realized it was her. "You mean Mary? She's here? She's my best friend!" Out of the other three, Ash found getting along with Mary easiest of all, even if she was really weird sometimes.

"She's currently two floors below us. I could call her if you like?"

"Sure! I haven't seen her in a few days." Ash began with a smile.

Spark raised a thumbs up to Ash. "See? One of your friends already is in one of the teams!"

"Hmm…" Ash looked back to Blanche. "Do you know about Gary and Emily?"

The white haired gym leader seemed thoughtful for a second before shaking her head. "No, I only met Ms. Sundance."

The door behind them opened up and instead of one person there were three. One of them on the very right was a girl with brown hair with a short pony tail on top and brown eyes carrying a Piplup in her hands. She was wearing a blue T-shirt that had a Team Mystic Symbol on it, white shorts over black and blue leggings, pink shoes with black straps, white bows and soles, and she had a white bag pack with one strap tied in a knot.

On to the left was a boy with gray eyes, mid-length green hair with bangs. Unlike most people in the building, he seemed to be wearing normal clothes like a white short-sleeved dress shirt over a green long sleeved undershirt, black trousers, black shoes with green soles, and a green backpack with connected straps. Riolu noticed that beside that young man was a Lucario who smiled and did a small wave at the same species.

And in the middle of the three, having grown in the past three years was Ash's friend, Maria Indra Sundance, or she preferred to be called, Mary. In the three years, her hair had grown long enough for her to have two front bangs on her side while the rest of her hair was tied up in an upper pony tail where the bottom of her hair still reached the top of her shoulders. She wore a light blue bell shirt, wore a light blue skirt above black-long pants and wore white sneakers. There was a Charmander near her feet and she was carrying a large white duffel bag with Poké Balls on the ends.

Ash brightened when he saw his friend and waved. "Yo, Mary!"

The stylish, silver haired girl's eyes widened as she saw a familiar face. "Ash!? What are you doing here!? I thought Professor Oak said he ran out of Pokémon!" She then noticed that Ash didn't have zero Pokémon, he had two on his shoulders.

Ash briefly explained how he and Riolu came to be after he overslept.

Mary sighed at the reason why she didn't see him that morning despite being super excited at wanting to go on his journey like the rest of them. "You overslept the one day you weren't supposed to?"

The young teen laughed as he rubbed his head. "Yeah! My bad!"

Blanche, seeing the two friends act like that, turned to Spark with a sense of understanding and annoyance.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Spark innocently asked, oblivious to how much that conversation would fit him and either her or Candela.

However, the studious leader of Team Mystic simply said, "You really should get that young man in your team."

Back with the conversation between the two Pallet Town kids, Mary smiled. "I am glad you got to start your journey after all, Ash! I really did try to wait for you but then I was left with Charmander here and he really seemed to like me and I couldn't really say…"

"It's alright, Mary!" Ash said. "I know you were really looking forward to this journey too! What kind of best friend would I be if I stopped you from doing that?" the boy said with a bright smile.

"Ooooh?" The girl that came in with Mary gave a mischievous smile as she grabbed Mary's shoulders from behind. "You didn't say that your best friend was a boy.~" Her smile could make a Gengar's smile look harmless and plain.

The silver haired girl seemed to panic and quickly turned. "W-What!? I-I already told you, Verity!"

"Actually," The boy among the three that entered began. "You simply said in random occasions that there were things that reminded you of your friend which in turn almost constitutes as pinning for—"

"Aaha! AH! AH!" Mary suddenly waved her hands and started making weird sounds. "Sorrel!"

Sorrel seemed to take in the information and came up with something in his mind. "Ah, my apologies."

Mary groaned and buried her face in her hands.

Ash, and Spark, didn't seem to really notice the context of that conversation and instead greeted the other two. "Are you friends of Mary? My name is Ash Ketchum; it's nice to meet you! The two here are my friends Riolu and Spearow."

The brown haired girl giggled. "Yep! My name's Verity Verona and this here is Piplup!"

The green haired young teen calmly introduced himself. "My name is Sorrel Decakles, and this my partner Lucario." He finished as he addressed the other blue jackal Pokémon beside him.

Mary looked over to the Spearow who seemed to be staring very hard at her. "So Ash? I didn't know you already caught another Pokémon. I still didn't know about which Pokémon I want in my team or not."

Ash laughed nervously. To be honest, it was more the other way around where Spearow wanted to join him. Not that he'd say it when she was in a good position to poke his eye out should he insult her or her honor.

"Oh that reminds me, how about Emily and Gary?"

The silver haired girl blinked. "Oh. They already took and joined Team Valor's no-gym badge challenge and are heading to the next place with a gym. I stayed behind because there were some books here I wanted to read."

It was at this moment that Sorrel spoke up. "This is when we met her and seeing as some of our goals coincide, we decided to travel with her."

"Yep! Mary here is a great battler! We watched her earn her first badge here and it was awesome despite the type advantage against her!"

Ash started to think hard after hearing that all of his friends had a badge except him. "Hmmm… I really need to hurry then."

"Hurry?" Mary tilted her head slightly at the sentence. "Are you battling one of the gym leaders here?"

"Huh, yeah. After I get ten badges."

Ash responded simply. However, no sooner than he said that, everyone in the room except him and Spark had their eyes widen.

"WHAT!?"

"You're actually going for the ten badge challenge!?" Verity's shock mirrored all the others in the room except Spark and Ash's Pokémon. "Are you crazy!?"

When Verity said this, she immediately backed off as Spearow started squawking loudly and scaring the brunette back. 'You dare challenge my honor!? I shall peck out your eyes for such an accusation of strength! Have at you!'

"No! Spearow, don't!" Ash said as he grabbed his new second Pokémon and tried to calm her down. Briefly, the young teen seemed to notice that other than him, no one seemed to understand what his Pokémon were saying.

While he did, Blanche turned to Spark.

"He wants to take the ten badge challenge?"

"Yeah, I was surprised when he first asked about it too."

"Spark," The white haired leader asked with a certain amount of seriousness. "Ash has never once given the impression he knows about us as much as the public usually does. Does he know how strong we really are?"

"Do you even realize how strong the Three Gym Leaders of Viridian City even are!?" Verity yelled back at Ash when Spearow was calmed down and told no one was challenging her honor.

"I heard they were around the Elite Four Level, and I wanna fight someone like that at their best!" Ash simply said.

"Wait Ash," Mary began a little nervous. "I don't think you know, but all three Gym Leaders have a Legendary Pokémon in their team!"

Flashes of the mysterious Pokémon that stopped the battle between Spearow's Clan and the Pidgey Clan came back into the mind of all three who were present there. Spark and the others had a Pokémon of that caliber in their team?

Ash turned towards Spark with a flat look and simply asked, "They do?"

Spark gave an equally disbelieving look. "I was surprised as you to find out I had a Legendary!"

Blanche slapped her forehead. "You didn't realize you were carrying a Legendary Pokémon for almost twenty years!" But then she sighed and looked to Ash. "But it is true. Candela and the two of us have had _certain conditions_ met before we became the leaders we are today and one of them is the result of befriending legendary Pokémon. But I feel the need to state that it is not only our legendary Pokémon that makes us in the level we are now. All of us, even Spark, are capable of being capable trainers without them."

In response to that knowledge, Blanche, and everyone else was surprised to see Ash smile. "Really?! Now the more I want to battle you with your best team!"

"Aww shucks, Ash! You're making such a big deal out of it!" The Leader of the Instinct Team blushed and rubbed the back of his head.

Verity shouted again in disbelief. "Are you crazy!? You can't win against that!"

Ash turned towards his Pokémon first. "What do you two think?"

'To fight against a god!? Ambitious, heretical… yet how my pride as a warrior demands this challenge be met! I say we must prepare and get stronger!' Spearow declared, but again Ash noticed that almost everyone seemed to not understand her beyond the normal squawking… except… Sorrel was it? He seemed to be silently watching in the back.

Riolu said something as well. 'Hmm, I dunno. But at the same time, how cool would it be to meet another legendary!? I wanna see how this'll play out!'

Hearing both answers, Ash turned back to Verity. "Verity, I appreciate you saying that, but I _am_ going to be the next Pokémon Master!" The young teen gripped his fist tightly and declared in such a way that didn't sound like empty ego, but a determined fact. "How can I chase my dream and let go of a chance to fight against a Legendary Pokémon!?"

Everyone was stunned at the declaration. However, the first to act was Spark who seemed actually excited after the bold declaration. "Well, when you put it like that, I can't wait to battle you!"

There was a sigh from Mary before she gave a small smile towards Ash. "You really haven't changed at all these past three years, Ash."

"Oh thanks?" Ash assumed that was a compliment. "You haven't changed much too, Mary."

Everyone but Ash and Spark noticed the sound of invisible glass shattering when Mary seemed to weakly freeze mid smile.

"… Spark, let him join your team."  
"But we haven't even gone to Cand—"  
"Spark, let him join your team."

Blanche immediately repeated after Spark tried to ask.

Ash, obviously oblivious to Mary's predicament, then continued talking. "I mean, you're still that amazing person ever since we've been kids!"

It was at that instant that Mary moved from disappointed shock to a startled shock after hearing such earnest praise so easily. "T-T-Tha-Thank you?" She turned her face away from her childhood friend in which her travel companions noticed the amazingly red face of hers.

The raven haired teen looked worriedly over to his friend. "Mary? Are you sick again? It kinda sounds like you have the same fever from three years ago."

(Aahh, youth.) Blanche sighed as she saw one of her newest members deny she was sick.

It was at this moment Verity squealed and then hugged the silver haired girl. "Aww that was so adorable! I can see why he's your _best_ friend." She said with a familiar cheshire smile.

"Verity!" Ms. Sundance half shrieked, half had her voice crack as she called out that name.

It was then that Spark heard his phone beeping and fished past one of the incubators he was carrying to fish it out. It seemed like he had a text message but then his eyes widened at what it was.

"The heck?" Spark began in a tone that was different from the usual jovial nature of the yellow leader, as everyone turned to him, he looked to Blanche. "Blanche, I got message from _you_."

"Excuse me?" That surprised the Mystic Gym Leader. "I've been with you these past few minutes and I never made any motion to call you on your phone while you are right next to me."

It was then that all members of Team Mystic in the room suddenly had their phone ring at the same time. There was something ominous about that action since while the three were checking their phones, Blanche quickly looked to Spark. "What is the message?" She asked with urgency.

The fellow Gym Leader read aloud what was on his phone. "Spark, there are some anomalies in my new security system that need immediate action. As such, when you see The Mystic Gym in Lockdown mode, do not panic, it is simply an inconvenient and unplanned drill."

Sorrel raised his hand and showed his phone. "Leader, we just had a similar message sent to us about the same Lockdown happening."

"What!?" Blanche cried out. "There are no anomalies in the security system!"

And then suddenly the lights and power of the room was cut and everyone was found in complete darkness.

"So umm," Ash seemed to speak up in the darkness. "I may not be the sharpest knife in the crayon box, but I think this might constitute as one?"

Suddenly, the room lit up with red lights and sirens blared around the room. Blanche hurriedly ran for the holo map in the middle of her office and quickly activated it. No sooner than she did, around a hundred or so pop ups came, all of them with mass warning signs as sirens started to blare.

"I'm being hacked!" She cried as she started to type down on a nearby holo keyboard. "Something has bypassed all my security systems somehow and is trying to delete all my research and data!"

Everyone started to panic as Blanche said that. However the Mystic team Leader far showed signs of defeat on her face. "I concede that you did well hacker, but that is all I'm letting you do!" Her typing became more furious, as it did some of the pop ups started to leave and then another pop up appeared that was a 3D image of the gym they were in. On one floor, there was a beeping red light.

Seeing that, Blanche quickly turned around. "Spark, the hackers are inside the building! It's the only way how they were able to spring such an attack without any of my firewalls activating to warn me! The hackers have me cornered here, but with that message, they obviously didn't expect you to be here, so please stop them!"

Spark quickly placed all the eggs he was carrying down on the floor and looked unnaturally serious. "You got it, come on guys!" Spark said as started to lead the four kids towards the area in the map.

"Mary, Verity, Sorren, go to the main lobby alert the rest of your team about what's really happening!" It spoke volumes that even though he wasn't their leader, the three quickly followed what he had said. Ash and his Pokémon ran and ran until they had reached one of the main libraries of Blanche's Headquarters.

There was a person seemingly chilling in front of the main doors to the library. "Oh hey what's up?"

"Look," Spark began as he pointed to the door. "I need you to move, the HQ is under a cyber attack and Blanche traced them back here!"

To the surprise of Ash, the Mystic member stated laughing. "Oh that's a good one, sir! We already got the message that this was a surprise drill!"

"It's no joke! I need you to move out of the way!" Spark began.

Before anything could be said, there was a growling sound that caught their attention. Everyone turned to Riolu who was usually so docile, was now glaring and snarling angrily at the mystic member.

Ash instantly got what his Pokémon was implying with his actions and pointed. "Spark, he's with the hackers!"

"Damn, I wasn't expecting a Riolu!" The fake mystic member instantly said as he dropped his façade. However, before he could reach for something in his pockets, he was suddenly shocked with a bolt of lightning before Ash could blink.

The young teen was surprised that already five Pokémon were out on Spark's side: a Jolteon, Magmar, Tangela, Raichu, and a Pidgeot.

Next all Spark did was point towards the door as his five Pokémon blasted the doors down.

The library itself was huge, and in the distance in front of a large computer screen was a cloaked man touching something that seemed to access some kind of file.

There was a sigh shown by the body language of this hooded figure, but they didn't move or turn around. "What was the phrase again? _The best laid schemes o' mice an' men/ Gang aft a-gley._ "

"What?" Ash tilted his head before both he and Spark noticed another hooded figure walk in the path between them and the one near a computer.

"My ally is simply saying we didn't expect the Leader of Team Instinct to make a surprise visit. How unfortunate, but all the same. We cannot let you interfere." As the hooded figure lifted his head a little, there was a glow of purple where the man's eyes would be.

"More than interfere," Ash, Spark, and their Pokémon turned around to see the Fake Mystic member back up as if he was never attacked at all. However, he did start moving around his jaw as if the shock had damaged him more on that than anything else. "We're making sure none of you live. …That was a cheap shot, bastard."

"Who are you people? You're definitely not Team Rocket." Spark began as he noticed the situation around him.

"Do you really think we're going to answer that question? It's two on one!" The fake man began.

Ash began to frown as it was obvious he wasn't counted. Unfortunately, he didn't really have a way to refute that.

"Ash," The teen looked at Spark as he noticed a very serious look on his face he never saw before. "Aim for the guy in the computer. Whatever's he doing, stop it. I'll cover you the entire time."

"Oh please, that kid won't be long in this world!" To the surprise of both Spark and Ash, the fake Mystic member threw six Pokémon balls out… then his body started to run into liquid! A Houndoom, Trevenant, Beedrill, Ariados, Shiftry, and Purugly appeared from the spheres, yet the man who turned into liquid seemed to reform into that of an Exploud.

"What the—did he transform into another Pokémon?!" Ash cried out in surprise before he saw Spark throw his hand out.

"Ash, move!" The blonde Leader of team instinct cried out before pushing the kid. As he did, a slash of purple energy cut through the area Ash was in previously and even blasted through the wall back at the hallway.

"Yep," Spark began as he stretched his fingers and looked towards the second cloaked figure who now was holding a glowing purple blade of energy. "You guys are _definitely_ _not_ Team Rocket."

The hooded stranger wielding a purple construct spun his blade before taking a sword stance with his hand pressed out and the blade above his head. Then—instantly _teleported_ above the back of Spark with his blade ready to cleave his head off.

With amazing speed, Spark ducked, and a vine shot out right for the man mid air before he teleported again and slid near the Exploud.

Ash noticed the tense air between Spark, his team, and the strange people with super human abilities. However, that was not his job to sit and gawk. "Riolu, Spearow, come on!" Ash cried out as he and his Pokémon ran for the guy in the in front of the computer.

Noticing the boy, the figure on the computers grunted. "The Leader of Team Mystic is better at handling my cyber attack than I thought. I need full concentration while Sword and Morph are obviously going to be warded away by the Instinct Leader."

"Spearow, Aerial Ace!" Ash pointed for the flying type to start looping mid air then suddenly vanish. However, the boy and the others didn't know that there were already objects moving towards the hacker.

Instead of hitting the intended target, Spearow ended up ramming right into a humanoid looking robot like the ones Ash saw on the outside lobby of the Mystic Headquarters. It dented the outer shell of the bot's torso, but it still stood in a towering eight feet tall height and tried to grab the flying type until she backed off.

"These combat sentries of the Mystic Team's practice room should hold you off a little longer." The man on the computer stated as he seemingly continued to fish the computer. Around two other Sentries walked up and all glowed with the intent to attack Ash.

Riolu dashed forward and hit one of the robots square in the face with a Force Palm. The attack dented the face somewhat, but the giant robot quickly motioned an arm to grab the small fighting type, only for the Emanation Pokémon to slip out before being caught.

Spearow continued fighting the one she first attacked. But it seemed like despite her speed, the robot was adapting to her attacks like the other one was soon adapting to Riolu's.

Ash was about to give an order until the last robot came up and actually tried to punch him into the ground. The raven haired boy avoided the fist, but he noticed the obvious crater where he was originally standing.

"Man, maybe those movies were robots take over humanity might have been on to something." Ash quipped before he rolled to dodge another strike from the robot.

The trainer started to run, but not just run, survey the area around him while the chaos was going around. Riolu and Spearow were struggling against their robot attackers. Spark and his Pokémon were in heavy battle with the attacker's allies. And it seemed like the robot chasing after him was not relenting beyond attacking him.

Wait, he could use that to his advantage. Ash flipped his cap backward and ran, ran like he never ran before deeper into the library.

'Fleshy, where are you going?!' Spearow cried out before ducking form another swipe of the machine.

Riolu fired a Vacuum Wave right for the joint knee of the robot he was facing, forcing it to stagger and fall. He then used that pause to shout back at Spearow, 'Trust him! He has a plan!"

Meanwhile, the fight between Spark and the other super powered beings and their Pokémon raged on. Despite being outnumbered, Team Instinct's Pokémon were keeping pace with that of the opponent's and even had a slight advantage. Their teamwork was far better than their opponents; however, even while things were getting destroyed, it still seemed like neither side could pull of a divisive move.

"Sword!" The Exploud turned into a Bisahrp and pointed at the man wielding the energy blade. "What are you doing!? Finish it already; he doesn't have a dark type!"

The hooded figure raised a palm towards Spark and his Pokémon. To the surprise of many, a psychic energy shot out and held them all in place.

"P-Psychic!?" Spark managed to blurt out.

"I was waiting for you to bring your full team, but then I realized you cannot bring out your strongest Pokémon without harming the other people in this building." Sword spoke out. "However, it seems that even while you are here, you posed no real threat to us with these many people being our unwitting hostages."

The Bisharp laughed as he threw his blade hand out while all his other Pokémon had this dark glint in their eyes. "Now I think I'll start by scarring that pretty face of yours!"

However, Sword suddenly dropped his hold when he swung his blade and used it to cut a large book thrown his way.

Bisharp and his Pokémon turned to see Ash's Riolu picking up large books form the library, tossing them in the air while avoiding the sentry, then in one fluid motion, perform three powerful kicks to send the books flying right towards the figure called Sword!

Sword easily cut the three books, but this allowed him to drop his hold and allow Spark and his Pokémon to get back on the offensive.

Mid air, Riolu smiled at what he accomplished but then noticed the sentry jumping out to reach for him while he couldn't move out of the way. However, Spearow flew in and was able to whisk the fighting type away before he could get caught.

Riolu, while being carried by Spearow and being chased by the two sentries, had his eyes widened. 'Spearow! Ash has a plan for us! Keep moving and I'll tell you about it!'

Back in the main computer, the hacker seemed to work frantically to download something.

"Damn. They brought back mass communications." The hacker said. "Fine. That was not our purpose but it does cut our time window considerably. I'll simply lock down the hallways on this floor. That should buy us enough time to complete the download…wait. What is that bloody sound—"

"Hello!" Ash cried out as he ran past the hacker and stopped right at his side with a smile.

The hacker raised an arm in front of the teen. The arm started charging up a Zap Cannon attack near the boy's face. "Be gone, child, these robes are quite hard to clean when there's a mess."

Yet to the surprise of the hacker, he noticed Ash was not at all worried. Surprised, caught off guard? Maybe… but he was still staying place.

That was when he heard the sound of metal _behind_ him.

The hacker had forgotten he had set the Sentry to attacking the boy and to get rid of anything in its way. In this case: that was him.

As soon as the hacker turned, he was swatted aside and away from the computer by the Sentry robot he programmed to ward off the teen. In this case, he could practically feel the sting of Irony—or actual plated steel— in this situation before he flew into the wall.

"Z!" Two of the protectors cried out as they saw their ally get attacked and Sword teleported right for the man, cutting the strength tying down Spark and his team.

"Oh wow that worked!" Ash cried out in surprise as he jumped back from the large robot from trying to stomp him like a bug. That was part one of his plan, now for part two. "Spearow, Riolu, now!" He cried out before he realized his back had hit one of the book stands—which momentarily stopped his movement.

The robot towered over Ash with both of its massive arms overhead with the intent to crush the boy. Yet in a blink of an eye, Riolu ridding on top of Spearow rammed into the side of the robot with their speed and attacks. The combined weight of both Pokémon at the speed they were going, caused the robot's side to be completely dented in and fall to its side.

Ash released a gasp he didn't know he was holding and looked to his Pokémon with a relived smile. "It's a good thing Professor Oak had me study velocity and weight while working as his assistant."

The three looked back to their right where the other two sentries were catching up with them. 'It's going to be really hard to pull that same build-up-speed tactic on those guys if we really want to beat them!' Riolu cried out.

Meanwhile, Sword picked up Z. "Are you alright?!"

"Ugh!" The other figure gasped as he got back up. "I'm fine! But my head is ringing!"

Suddenly, the shift-shaper and his Pokémon were found to be regrouping and facing against Spark and his Pokémon.

"Z, tell me you did the damn thing!" Morph cried out as he then started to transform into an Alakazam. "I can sense the lockdown undoing itself! We've run out of time!"

"I-I did." Z stood up as he and his teammates looked on to the incoming leader of Team Instinct.

"There's no way I'm letting you all escape!"

Z put one of his hands out as if he was about to snap his fingers. "You don't get that choice." Then he did snap them together. The sound made the two sentries chasing after Ash freeze.

"Warning, Self destruct in 3…" Ash and his Pokémon looked on surprise at the frozen robots before trying to run. Spark noticed how the robots were now chasing the young teen and then noticed the hackers starting to gather psychic energy to teleport out of there.

"2…" Spark didn't have a choice. He turned and pointed towards the robots chasing Ash. "Guys, save Ash and stop those bots!"

"1…"

"0."

Everyone in Viridian City noticed the explosion come out of Team Mystic's base.

* * *

Blanche had finally entered into the Main Library with a majority of her team members behind her. To the surprise of many there was now a gaping hole that looked out in the city with both Spark and Ash looking through it with their Pokémon.

"You know," Spark began as they looked out to the view of the city and heard the sounds of sirens coming their way. "I still haven't brought you to Candela yet."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that. What's she like?" Ash seemed to continue the mundane conversation despite their current situation.

"Funny thing is that she's usually more exciting than Blanche." The blonde man turned his head around and then did a small wave to his fellow Team Leader who was walking up to them. "Sorry, Blanche, they got away."

Ash turned around and bowed. "I'm sorry, it was mostly my fault."

"It's alright. Things would have been much worse had you two not been here in the first place. Still… did you find any sign of who they were?"

The two trainers looked at each other before looking back to the leader of Team Mystic. "They all had super powers."

"… What?"

"Ash!" Mary, followed by her friends, ran up to her friend with obvious worry on her face. "Are you alright?"

The raven haired boy nodded. "Yeah, guess all those self defense classes that Emily's Uncle put us through actually paid off after all." The young teen laughed.

"Oh my gosh, Ash, I was worried! These sounded like terrorists and you were already facing them!? What if they decided to kill you and not play around? Are you sure you aren't bleeding anywhere?" Mary cried out as she went closer to Ash and seemed to study the slightly dusty boy if he was actually hurt and just didn't notice.

"Mary, I'm alright—"

"But you couldn't have been!" She shouted back with her eyes near tears. "I was worried for you! What could I say to your mother if you had gotten hurt here!? You're always so reckless!"

The teen actually flinched at how dear her words had been. He had forgotten about his mother for a second. If anything did happen to him, what would happen to her? Ash lowered his head slightly in shame. "S-Sorry, I didn't mean to make you worry."

The silver haired girl seemed to flinch when she saw the usually chipper boy down in the dumps. "I-I am sorry. I didn't mean to snap like that."

Ash returned a small but earnest smile. "No, it's fine. I have always been reckless out of all of us. Thanks, Mary, you're always looking out for me. You're a great friend."

Usually, hearing that last word sometimes gave her a weird and upsetting feeling. However, this time she felt a warmth and ease when Ash had spoken so sincerely again. Mary had the need to move some of her hair behind her ear before she looked back down on the floor. "… You're a great friend too. And I'm not saying that you shouldn't rush into danger when someone is in trouble… but please try your best to stay safe?"

The raven haired teen smiled wide. "Aww come on, Mary, you know I don't purposely try to hurt myself."

The silver haired girl seemed to relax a little more. "I seem to recall that one time where you tried to ride a Ryhorn down a mountain path." She said with accusation rather than pointing out a fact.

"Okay in my defense, I really thought it was a great idea at the time."

It was then that despite that little outburst, Mary found herself laughing. Even through a scary life and death experience, Ash was still Ash thankfully. He's probably not going to stop having these strange events happening, but at the same time, it was usually better him than anyone else. She was still going to worry, she probably still would—as would his mom. But it was nice to know that Ash really did have a good heart.

"Daww, I didn't know Mary could act so cute!~" Verity cooed as she watched her friend act like a mother hen towards her friend after the rather personal back and forth.

Sorrel smiled but sighed and shook his head at his friend's reaction. Who exactly were those people that could organize an attack at who were considered indisputably the strongest Gym Leaders in Kanto?

And more importantly…

The green haired teen walked up to Blanche who looked at him with some amount of curiosity. "Yes, Sorrel?"

The green haired young man inhaled, making everyone look at him seriously. He then asked plainly and clearly, "Leader, what exactly was the purpose of the cyber attack and infiltration?"

"… I'd have to check. As soon as the cyber attack ended, I saved the files and made my way here. I do not know what the purpose of this attack was."

* * *

Inside an inconspicuous truck, three people were in the back, silently waiting on the vehicle's floor.

In the driver's seat of the truck, there were two people, one driving and one ridding beside him.

"So, Larry, how's the kids?" The driver asked the one next to him without taking his eyes of the road and traffic.

One of the members inside the truck seemed to be the one to respond to the driver. "All things considered, not as bad as it looked despite us actually alerting Kanto's finest of our existence."

Morph seemed to scoff at the answer. "We were made complete fools by baby faced children! Powerful trainer or no, we should have been able to kill all those against us, but we lost to some slacker and a brat!"

"The kids are fine. Shelia is thinking about getting a Poochyena for them to play with." The one next to the driver spoke in response to that. It didn't take much to figure out that the two in front were pretending to have a conversation with each other to further hide the fact there were people behind them.

"Regardless," Z began as he lifted up a USB drive. "We have the system software we need. Now it's only a matter of time until we find the traitor and where he hid the heretics."

* * *

As the sun was setting, Ash and his Pokémon stood in front of Spark inside the front courtyard of the Instinct Gym after a really long day. "So, I decided I wanna join Team Instinct."

"Oh thank, Arceus." From the side, Jana gasped in relief to which made Spark smile earnestly.

"Thanks for joining Team Instinct, Ash! I think you'd make a great member!" The leader of Team Instinct declared before Jana came in with a box that she handed to Ash.

"That box has a few things inside like just some shirts, shorts, and caps with our symbol on it. You don't have to wear them but just know they're there," Spark fished his pockets and took out a fancy cylindrical device that was just twice the size of a Poké Ball. "This gadget is a Portable Storage Access, or PSA."

The teen took the object and scanned it carefully. To his surprise it felt rather light, but he could tell the technology was something like the most up-to date technology. "What is it?"

"You've heard of the Pokémon Storage System, yeah?"

"The one the famous Bill made?" Ash did recall Professor Oak mentioning it to him several times. His Pokémon Storage system was invaluable to every trainer in the world… according to Professor Oak. He just took the man's word for it.

Spark nodded. "Blanche, Professor Willow, and Bill worked to create a portable version of that system for anyone joining Teams Instinct, Valor, and Mystic. You can still only carry Six Pokémon at a time, but now you can switch any of them any time you want."

That now meant that a trainer with that could travel with his entire party at his disposal if he wanted to. That was a really cool gadget.

Jana started speaking up again. "There are also a few books inside the box you are carrying that are just formal stuff about being in the Team Instinct organization. And there's a Poké Nav you can use for the purpose of having an easier time to access the data that Team Instinct has."

"Wow, can I really have all this stuff?" Ash asked in awe at what he received.

"I told you there were perks of joining a public organization." The older member of Team Instinct nodded as she said this.

"Thanks a lot! This is really great!" The teen said before looking up at the sky. "I gotta go now. I'm long due for a phone call."

"Alright, good luck, Ash!" The Leader of Team Spark and his friend waved goodbye as the young teen left, now being an official member of a team.

…

Despite his earlier act of bravery earlier that day, Ash Ketchum was somewhat hesitant when he sat in front of a public video phone in the Pokémon Center.

'Why are you just staring at nothing?' Spearow tilted her head as she pointed to the screen. 'Is this some kind of fleshy tradition or something?'

Ash sighed. "Sorta… but it's also something I gotta do." The teen pressed some numbers and then waited a bit.

The screen popped to life, signaling that the person he was calling was answering the phone. "Ash?"

The raven haired teen gave a genuine smile when seeing this person. "Hey mom, you would not believe what happened these past few days."

* * *

+Author Notes+

So yeah, some world building, some plot introduction, some character development, but surprisingly… no official trainer battles yet and I'm three chapters in a Pokémon fic. Is there a record for that?

I thought I'd briefly explain my inclusion of the three teams from the Pokémon Go phone game. The idea of actually having a 'good' team in the Pokémon world really interested me. Teams Valor, Mystic, and Instinct got me wondering what kind of impact they would have on the world if they were put into like the major game worlds. It opens up a lot of new branching out in world building that is like new territory. Hopefully, I can write it so people still enjoy it.

An introduction to some of the antagonists of this story! Of course, they're laying low for now, so there isn't much known about them. Though it is weird that the trainers of their ranks actually have super powers like teleporting, shape shifting, and the ability to control machines and such? How and why do they have powers like Pokémon?

Lastly, the OCs. I'm a little on the fence about this since this is one of the most stigmatized things in Fanfiction. To be fair, it usually deserves most of its stigma, but I sincerely do enjoy OCs that are amazingly well written. And I hope you are enjoying the OCs I have now.

Maria Indra Sundance, or Mary for short, is the more obvious one as she's the first OC that I've decided to develop and half introduce first.

To some of you, she may seem like a Serena Clone, and I did base some things off her, but I promise that she is more involved with the story plot instead of being just a potential romantic interest.

Emily, and even Gary affect the overall story plot of what I have planned.

Like I said, I wanted to do my own personal spin on the Pokémon Journey stories that you see a lot here in Fanfiction. Anyway, please review, Follow, Favorite this story. Thanks.


	4. Ep 4: Let's Rock!

+Review Response+

Batman1998: That depends how much this story is received. For now, Kanto is planned, but as the story continues, I'll decide if I want to continue it or not.

Thor94: It is a strange adventure, who knows what could happen?

Guest (March 16) (Ch 2): That was a strange idea. I will say nothing more about that than this.

My thoughts: Thanks for supporting this story so far. I'm honestly humbled at how much support this is getting in only a few weeks.

Alright, back to the story.

* * *

Ash ran and ran through the woods. It seemed like Emily's Uncle, Apollo, was right in conditioning the four of them to be physically fit before they began their journeys… even if he tended to go a bit overboard at times.

The teen jinked to the right to avoid a blast of pressured air from hitting him.

'I'm glad to see you are at least capable of this much!' Ash turned to his right to see Spearow keeping up with relative ease. 'However, it is not enough! You too must be strong enough to be worthy of my vassal!'

"Spearow, I keep telling you—" Ash then noticed that the flying type was winding up more speed to perform Aerial Ace. The teen slid to the ground to avoid being tackled by the warrior flying type.

When Ash got back up, he heard something above him and quickly ducked under before Riolu could pounce on his head.

'You're actually not bad at this training stuff.' Riolu began as he stood back up from his attack.

Ash dusted himself off a bit after rolling from the ground. "Like I said, my friend's Uncle was adamant in teaching every one of us self defense lessons. I guess he was right trying to drill it in us for the past three years."

It was then the young teen felt something strange he had never felt before. His head felt a little more chilly than usual. As he reached for his head, he had found his cap was gone and away from his head.

Before he could look for it, Spearow flew to his shoulder with the very cap he lost that was being held in her beak. Ash smiled and took it from her. 'Acceptable, but not good enough! Your very presence should win battles alone!' The flying type boldly declared.

"That's… ambitious," Ash began as he put his cap back on. "But we really should focus on you two. Thanks to the gear Team instinct gave us, we know that the nearest Gym, Pewter City, is a rock type gym. While Riolu has a clear advantage, Spearow is actually in a disadvantage."

'Pssha!' Fearow declared as she threw a wing out. 'Any disadvantage can be overcome!'

"That's the spirit! It's also why I've been having us play tag a lot while heading towards Pewter City. It's to help our practice our speed and mobility in unfamiliar areas." The teen explained. "Considering our move pool is still limited, I'm hoping we can capitalize on our speed and mobility in our upcoming gym battle."

"You obviously put a lot of thought into that."

That new voice surprised the three as they looked to their right. There was a young woman with long, dull purple hair that fell just above her waist and had some of the fiercest crimson eyes anyone could ever see. Her get up was somewhat weird as well; it was some kind of long sleeved, red and black t-shirt that reached below her waist. She wore black pants and long red boots.

Needless to say, she looked dangerous.

"Oh hi! I didn't see you there. I'm Ash and these are my Pokémon."

… To everyone not Ash Ketchum and his Pokémon.

The woman walked up to the teen with an unreadable look on her face before pointing to the young man's bag pack. "If you don't mind me asking, do you have something in your bag? Something special in it?"

The teen tilted his head at the question. "I guess? I mean a lot of my stuff is pretty special to me."

"No I mean…" The woman seemed to think for a moment. "Do you have something that seems unnatural?"

"Unnatural?" Ash repeated before he started to think. After a second, he realized what could fit that description and instantly fished for the Rainbow Feather he was given. "You mean this?" He said as he picked the object that seemed to radiate living colors.

The purple haired woman's gaze seemed to laser in on the object. "Yes. That. Where did you get it?"

Ash, not noticing the tone of the woman, honestly answered her. "I found it after seeing a legendary Pokémon. I don't know which one though." It was then the young teen looked up at her. "But how did you know about it?"

For the longest of seconds, the woman seemed to silently stare at Ash. Yet she did answer. "Forgive me if I sounded rude. My name is Sabrina and to answer your question as to how I knew what you were carrying, I simply sensed it."

That second to the last word had caught Ash's attention. "Sensed it? You mean like Riolu here?"

"No," Sabrina gave a brief glance at the blue fighting type that waved and smiled at her. "I have different means of sensing than a Riolu or Lucario."

"What is it?"

It was kind of odd. Most people were either afraid or interested in her enough to think they could use her for their own plans, yet this trainer and his Pokémon…. She could tell they were somewhat slow, but at the same time the way they greeted her… it was different.

Sabrina's crimson eyes glowed. As it did, branches from the trees all gathered towards her. Ash and his Pokémon watched as like a dozen branches all got crushed together into a solid wooden ball that fell into Sabrina's hand.

"It's psychic powers. These are the powers that allowed me to sense that feather." The light of her eyes died down as she then dropped the wooden ball into the ground. With how it didn't even bounce, it showed how dense the small object actually was.

Sabrina noticed the look on all three faces after she had used her power. That was the look she was more accustomed too.

"Hey that power looks familiar. Yeah! It was one of the powers those weird robbed guys used!" The psychic user blinked as she saw that the boy and his Pokémon weren't as afraid as she thought they would be. In fact she really did not expect that reaction.

But the psychic user was caught off guard by not only his emotion, but what specifically the boy said in that declaration. This young trainer had seen others with powers similar to hers?

"Are you one of them?" Ash's voice brought the older woman back to reality as she noticed him looking at her.

"I do not even know who you are referencing, let alone claim to be a part of them." Sabrina said before stepping forward. "However, if I may? I would like to see into your memories."

"Whoa, what!? You can do that!?" Ash looked in surprise. Despite seeing super powers just yesterday and a few seconds ago, he was honestly surprised to see them again so soon.

"It usually requires an open mind," Granted she had a feeling Ash already fitted that criteria to a T. Then she began to remove one of her gloves. "If you allow me to place a hand on your head, I can peer into your memories and see what you saw. I would like to see who exactly you are referencing when you said you've seen powers like mine."

Ash seemed to pause for a second before seemingly thinking. "Okay."

It was like she was talking to a puppet. Sabrina placed her hand on Ash's forehead—odd, it was strangely warm and comforting to her cold hands.

"Now just close your eyes and just think about those times." This was definitely different from all the times where… she had to be a little more forceful to gain things she needed.

And then—

 _PalletTownUnuckyEventsTentothirteenProfessorOakThreeYearsRioluSpearowFearowLegendaryEatingBugsViridianCitySparkTeamInstinctTeamMysticMaryHackersSuperpowers_ —

Sabrina quickly removed her hand from the boy's forehead. That was completely different than before. It was like… she saw a brief flash of his entire life instead of just a memory. Why? She knew her powers were great and that the boy was putting up no defense, but why did she access his entire life when she only needed that memory!?

"Are you alright?" The sound of a genuinely worried voice made Sabrina look back.

"I-I'm fine." She had never experienced something like that before. What was that?! And… did… did a piece of her psychic powers stay with the boy? Now that she had her senses back, some of her power was still lingering in the boy as if she had never let go. It was a very, very tiny fraction of her power, and the boy surely looked like he didn't even know psychic powers existed in humans before this moment, let alone plan to steal her powers—after all, she was reading the current thoughts of the boy and he showed no sign of ulterior motives. So why was it now there?

"I saw who you were talking about. I must say that I've never seen them before." The psychic woman decided to answer the strange boy that certainly piqued her interest. "But yes, one of them had Psychic powers, just ones I'm not aware off." That was something irksome to say the least. In the brief flashes, the mysterious person could teleport short distances and create telekinetic energy blades on whim. Sabrina had yet to even attempt psychic skills of that reality bending power, so how could he do it easily when it was obvious his raw psychic power was clearly not strong enough? Something was off about those men.

"So you don't know them either, but then again Leader Spark told me that they were going to handle it, so it should be fine."

Ah yes, when Sabrina peered into the boy's mind, she had found out he was affiliated with the three Viridian Gyms. Her _associate_ expressed how they set him back somewhat, and with how she currently stood that meant they were also a liability to her own goals.

"So how did you gain your powers?"

Again, the young boy's voice brought Sabrina out of her thoughts. The question was honest, but it caught her slightly off guard.

"I was born with them." Sabrina flatly answered with not a single trace of emotion, it was more like she was going through the motions rather than earnestly answering the boy. "I nurtured them over time until I could do the actions you see now."

The psychic could not understand why there was a strange look in his ey—was this boy excited? "Oooh! Ooh! Do you think I could do that? Having super powers is cool!"

She was about to say no until she realized the lingering fraction of her power inside the young boy started fluctuating. "I can check."

Again she motioned the boy close and again Ash did not even seem to question her. How easy would it have been that someone of her caliber could reach in to this young teen's mind and make him do whatever she wanted, make him turn against all he knew and not even question it. Yet… there was something in the back of her mind that was against that for a reason she could not explain. Why?

Her hand was on his warm forehead again and this time she tried to see if she could take back that lingering power. However, to her surprise, it kept avoiding her. It was as if it liked Ash more than her? Impossible, it was _her_ power and powers _did not_ have feelings. Yet the more she tried, she could feel the separated power… manifesting, anchoring more into the young child's essence. How bizarre was this? She had never seen or even fathomed this kind of thing could happen yet here it was.

Sabrina let go. She figured it was more effort than it was worth. "I don't know." She answered. "It's hard to say."

Yet for the first time in a while, she smiled. "However, if you don't mind me asking that I may accompany you for a while? I will have much clearer answer as time passes."

"Really? That sounds cool!"

Spearow threw her wing out. 'Now while this was all fascinating and such, do we not have a battlefield to enter into!?'

Ash instantly remembered what he was doing before he had met Sabrina. "Oh right! The Pewter City Gym!" At that, the Trainer and his Pokémon started to run ahead. A few steps forward, and then the boy halted. "Are you coming, Sabrina?"

The young boy may have stopped, but what he didn't know was that he had stopped right in front of a slope that was about to give way. Correction: that _just_ gave way.

"AAAHHH!?"

'Ash!' Both of his Pokémon cried out before diving after him.

Sabrina stared hard at the scene and heard the sound of others still screaming. "… There is a chance I may regret this decision."

* * *

"So, you can understand Pokémon as well?" Ash asked as they made their way in front of the Pewter City Gym.

"I do, but my conversations aren't usually as… lively as your Pokémon obviously are." Now that she thought about it. Not once has the Riolu shown an ounce of distrust towards her. Granted she knew enough about aura to form a psychic barrier to prevent even their kind from sensing her, but it seemed like the Riolu was just as trusting and just as naïve as his trainer.

"Oh hey, there it is!" Ash pointed over to the elaborate building that he was heading towards.

As he, Sabrina, and his Pokémon entered, the young teen shouted out loud, "Hello!? I'm Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town and I would like to challenge the Gym please!"

No sooner than he said this, a young man no older than Ash stepped out. "I am the current Gym Leader of this place, Forrest Slate! I accept your challenge! How many badges do you have, challenger?"

"This is my first one!" Ash quickly answered.

However, Sabrina blinked in surprise when she saw the young man. "Forrest Slate? I was under the impression that the gym leader of Pewter City was Brock Slate."

"That is my older brother; he went into medical school to become a doctor around two years ago." The young man explained. "I'm to replace him unless he wishes to return."

Sabrina said no more but was a little surprised she didn't know about that. Granted there were not many people willing to share current events with her due to… a large amount of reasons.

Forrest led Ash towards the battle field of the gym which was filled with rocky terrain. Sabrina simply sat in the stands with curiosity at how the young teen and the young gym leader would go battle.

From the opposite end of the battle field, Forrest declared, "This will be a two on two singles match! The first to lose is the one with no useable Pokémon, agreed?"

Ash nodded in response, gripping the Poké Ball in his hand tightly.

"Then begin!" The Pewter City Gym leader began as he threw out his own Pokémon, "Go Geodude!"

"Go, Riolu!" Ash threw the sphere as his own starter took the stage.

The battle had begun.

Forrest was first to command his Pokémon to use Stone Edge, causing the ground beneath the fighting type to shoot up a giant rock. Riolu bent backward into several back flips to avoid all the rocks attempting to hit beneath him then jumped into the air.

As the fighting type was in the air, he and Ash instantly noticed that there was a hole in the ground where Geodude was originally. Riolu acted quickly and went into scanning mode. However, as soon as he closed his eyes, something shot out of the rocks with unbelievable speed. Geodude was already charging his fist with amazing power and then slammed his empowered fist to knock Riolu into the ground.

"Riolu!" Ash cried out before instantly recognizing that the move the rock and ground type just used was Mega Punch. The challenger clicked his teeth. Geodude was faster than he let on!

"Geodude, again!" Forrest cried out as the dual type quickly slammed his hands on the ground, firing another Stone Edge.

However, Ash knew avoiding the attack would not work. He instantly linked his commands to Riolu and the fighting type got back up and in a burst of speed from Quick Attack, avoided the rocks from hitting him again. Yet something was different this time: while Riolu was zipping around, he suddenly jumped, stopped channeling Quick Attack, and reclined his fist back mid air.

With his eyes closed, he punched forward, unleashing a powerful Vaccum Wave that was so fast that it speared through two Stone Edge rocks and squarely hit Geodude before he could enter underground and made him skip as if he was a flat stone thrown at a lake.

"Now, press the offensive!" Ash cried out as Riolu quickly dashed with Quick Attack again to close the distance between them.

"Geodude, Stone Edge in front of you!" Forrest knew that letting a fighting type in close quarters was going to be an absolute disaster. While that long range Vaccum Wave that hit behind two rocks took him by surprise, it didn't stop him from changing the flow of the battle.

The dual type quickly recovered and slammed one of his hands on the ground, creating a pseudo wall between him and the Riolu. Yet the fighting type only ran faster as he saw the hastily constructed wall meant to deter him.

The fighting type reclined his fist then dropped the Quick Attack, instead of stopping, he slid on the ground as his right palm started gathering a lot of aura. The fighting type unleashed the charged up Force Palm into the rocks and the impact cracked all the walls and made the fake wall shatter like glass with the intense energy. However, Geodude was seen already rushing with a right hand Mega Punch attack on the fighting type no sooner than he broke the wall.

The Mega Punch connected—no. In the last second, Riolu ducked to the right, raised his free left palm and slammed another Force Palm in to the face of the rock type. There was a noticeable sting from the direct hit, but it seemed like Geodude recovered faster than before and grabbed Riolu's left wrist with his own left hand and smiled.

In a sudden movement, Geodude whipped Riolu like a rag doll to the other side and shot out another Mega Punch as soon as the fighting type was thrown down. However, Riolu quickly rolled before the attack could connect, but the impact of the blow made Riolu be launched somewhat further away from the Geodude once more.

"Don't let him get out of close quarters, Riolu!" Ash cried out as the fighting type dashed towards Geodude with another Quick Attack.

"Geodude, Defense Curl!" The Pewter Gym leader commanded as Geodude put his hands over his face and heightened his defenses before Riolu could come in with a Force Palm.

"Keep it up!" Ash cried out for the fighting type to keep up the offensive and lock the defending Pokémon into Defense Curl.

Sabrina watched the two Pokémon continue to battle for a while and thought to herself: the two were putting up a rather hot-blooded battle. In fact, she had to give credit to the new gym leader, he was definitely no slouch if this really was his Pokémon for the No-Badge limit. Not to mention, she never knew that Ash had linked with the fighting type, capable of allowing him commands without words and practically being able to give and receive orders much faster than sound.

Yet it seemed like Ash was about to win—hmm? That was a curious energy coming from the rock type.

Riolu, with one mighty push, was able to break through Geodude's defenses and make the rock Pokémon drop his guard down from a staggering blow. The fighting type didn't waste time and went straight for the knock out move. However, a bright shining light came from Geodude—which momentarily made Riolu and everyone stop what they were doing and shield their eyes.

As the light died down, Riolu felt a shadow casted over him and quickly looked up—only to get decked by a powerful Mega Punch. The fighting type twisted mid air, then landed on his foot paws with a slide before shaking his head and looking up. His view was a little shaky but then as he focused, everyone saw what had transpired.

Geodude evolved into Graveler.

'Hahha!' The Graveler flexed with a mighty shout. 'Now this is more like it!' He said as he really tested his two extra arms around.

Forrest looked up to Ash. "I'm sorry to say that the battle cannot be cancelled now. The battle will have to continue."

"What are you saying!? This is great! Riolu, can you still battle?!"

The fighting type responded to his trainer by stomping one foot forward and then tensing into a fighting position. His answer was clear.

"I see," Forrest pointed over to Riolu. "Graveler, use Rock Blast!"

The evolved Pokémon used all of its arms to start forming chunks of rocks in his hands before throwing them at the fighting type with the speed of a machine gun. Riolu quickly started dodging all the rocks coming his way by use of Quick Attack while Ash was trying to figure out a new strategy.

It was not fast enough as Graveler momentarily stopped using Rock Blast and then started using Stone Edge. But something was off, it looked like the evolved Pokémon was being a little more sloppy in his usage of Stone Edge since Riolu was dodging each one much easier.

Sabrina narrowed her eyes at the move, already figuring out what the gym leader was doing. Ash eventually figured it out too late as the emanation Pokémon dodged another Stone Edge. The attacks were boxing Riolu in! The fighting type was now surrounded by rocks in every direction and he was a sitting duck!

'This is the end!' The Graveler cried out as he then summoned rocks in his hand and fired a rapid amount of Rock Blasts.

Riolu stood his ground and then heard an order from Ash. The fighting type reclined both of his fists and then punched the air like never before.

The rocks coming his way were suddenly broken as it seemed like Riolu was firing Vacuum Wave after Vacuum Wave.

"Your pace is much faster now, Graveler, keep it up!" Forrest cried out.

Ash heard this order and also knew that Riolu couldn't match the frequency of Graveler's attacks. Instead, it another came to the young teen's head and they were going to risk it in this move.

Riolu heard the order and started slowing down his attacks. The frequency of the Rock Blasts were outpacing the Vacuum Waves. Then in one motion, Riolu stopped and put both his palms together behind him.

Sabrina noticed the glow on both of the young Pokémon's hands as more and more Rock Blasts came right towards him.

"Now!" After hearing Ash's scream, Riolu then punched the air with both his fists out that were powered up with Aura. The result of this action caused two large, fist-shape blows of air to speed past all the incoming rocks, break through them, and Blast Graveler off the ground and bounce like a thrown ball.

The evolved Pokémon tried to get up… but then fell back down with his eyes looking dizzy. This signaled the first knockout went to Ash.

"Whoo hoo! Great Job, Riolu!" The teen cried out and gave a thumbs up to the panting fighting type.

Sabrina was rather impressed. She had never really witness Aura first hand, but it appears the rumors of it allowing to increase the power of certain moves was not exaggerated.

Forrest recalled the Graveler back into his Poké Ball. "Well done. But you still have one more Pokémon left to defeat!" The Gym Leader brought another Poké Ball and threw it out. As soon as he did a massive figure landed on the field and caused the entire battlefield, including the stands, to shake.

Onix appeared in the field and roared mightily before lowering his gaze back down to Riolu who was understandably starting to sweat from a hard battle with Graveler.

"Will you change your Pokémon?" Forrest asked his challenger. Ash looked to Riolu who gave one nod before facing the giant land snake.

Ash shook his head and Forrest took in that answer. "Then we will continue the battle! Sandstorm!"

Onix swiped his tail and instantly a storm brewed inside the battle field.

It would have completely reduced the vision of any normal opponent, but Riolu could actually see more with his eyes closed. Instantly, the fighting type jumped to the side when he felt Onyx's tail coming in to swat him into the ground.

Ash heard the sounds of battling and linked to Riolu to fire back Vacuum Waves at the opponent. However, because of the ragging sand storm, most of the fast attacks were greatly weakened and at most seemed to be gusts of wind hitting on Onyx.

"Onix, Screech!"

The might rock type unleashed a high pitched scream towards the fighting type. The little emanation Pokémon could only clamp his ears as he was caught in the powerful scream. Even Ash had to cover his ears to somehow mitigate the loud sound.

Forrest saw his chance. "Onix, use Dragonbreath!"

A mystic fire gathered inside Onix's mouth as he then fired it on to the downed fighting type. The result of the attack caused an explosion that instantly dissipated the sandstorm, but as the smoke died down, Riolu was out cold.

Ash gritted his teeth as he then recalled his partner back in to his Poké ball. This meant that there was one Pokémon left on both side. Spearow seemed to have a disadvantage from the start, but there was a chance that Ash thought they could pull.

As the teen threw out Spearow's Poké ball, the fierce bird came out and saw her opponent. A grin spread across her face as she declared, 'Aha! A worthy opponent for my first battle! Prepare to fall to the daughter of the Chieftain!'

'Listen, kid, I don't do _falling_.' The Onix returned.

Forrest seemed oblivious to the brief talk before ordering another Sandstorm. Spearow, hearing Ash's order, quickly used Agility to speed out of the way.

Eventually, nearly all the battlefield was covered in a sand storm. Sabrina had to make a small barrier for her not to get hit by sand. Yet she was somewhat thankful that the gym leader was obviously experienced enough to not touch the bleachers, so there was that. However, she could no longer see what was inside the storm and had to rely mostly on her own powers.

What she sensed was rather curious.

Inside the storm, Spearow seemed to have trouble trying to fly. However, it was only momentary as she soon got used to the sand storm by ridding the flow of the wind rather than go against it.

Onix saw his opponent and quickly fired Screech. However, Spearow sped up again to avoid being caught in the worst of the scream.

And then, the large snake like Pokémon fired a Dragonbreath. As he did, Spearow avoided the attack again with relative ease. The powerful flames seemed to ignite the area causing another explosion that cut the sandstorm short.

However, Ash smiled after the attack.

As the dust started to settle, Onix noticed something coming out of the smoke—to the surprise of Forrest and Onix, it was another Onix!?

The other Onix—that looked completely see through—started to inhale then unleash a powerful Dragonbreath right at the opposing rock snake.

Onix staggered from the attack, lost balance, and fell down.

'Ha!' Fearow's voice came from above. 'For someone who does not fall, you do a pretty good job of it!'

Forrest seemed to understand as the see-through Onix started to disappear. "Your Spearow knew Mirror Move?" It was an attack that copies the last known move of the opponent. He surely wasn't expecting that from the flying type.

"Yep! It was a pretty cool move when we first practiced it, so we thought we'd bring out for this battle!" Ash said as he pointed once more. "Spearow again! Mirror Move!"

Spearow, in one mighty gust of wind, summoned another phantom of Onix with mystic fire gathering in his breath.

"Oh no you don't! Onix, return fire!" The gym leader quickly cried out as the rock type Pokémon fired his own Dragonbreath at his opponent. The two attacks clashed before exploding again. However, the force of the blast threw Spearow off balance and made her start to fall.

Onyx capitalized on this and made his tail start glowing. The young teen and Sabrina noticed that it was the move, Iron Tail. He swung his massive tail like a whip as it glowed like a search light. He then swatted Spearow into the ground.

"Spearow!" The young teen cried out in worry at the direct hit from the Pokémon almost fifty times the size and around a hundred times heavier.

The dust settled, and Spearow was seen trying to get back up, but obviously in her last reserves from such a clean hit.

"Finish it, Onix, Iron Tail!" Forrest cried out as the Onix started to gather energy in his tail once more.

Spearow twitched in pain for a second in trying to escape, meaning that the attack was now closing in on her faster than before—

"You can do it, Spearow! Show him what you're made off!"

Ash's sudden shout of encouragement made the flying type regain her pride. She was not going to lose like this!

With a burst of speed, Spearow avoided the Iron Tail with Agility. Then started flying right for the face of Onix!

"Onix, Dragonbreath!"  
"Spearow, Mirror Move!"

The two young boys cried out at nearly the same time. Because the last move used was Iron Tail before Onix was about to use Dragonbreath, a ghost image of Onix appeared with his tail where Spearow was speeding. The Iron Tail ghost and Dragonbreath started to clash. Due to Spearow's damage, she twitched again and made the phantom with the steel type energy get somewhat overwhelmed by the dragon energy.

Spearow glared at the attack trying to consume her, and then with a powerful cry, exerted so much force that in one instant—

BOOM!

She had pierced through the attack like a real spear and caused an explosion near Onix's face.

The flying type circled back quickly to Ash's side of the field as they watched the smoke obscure Onix's face… then they watched him fall into the ground. With the smoke lifting, Onix was down for the count.

"W-We did it! Great job, Spearow!" Ash jumped out for joy as he ran towards his Pokémon. The proud flying type huffed, but quickly landed on the trainer's shoulder.

'Ha that was nothing—ack!' The flying type flinched when trying to huff her chest with pride.

Forrest recalled the Onix and walked up to Ash. "Well done, challenger. You've earned this: the Boulder Badge." He said as he showed the proof of victory to the young boy.

Ash smiled elatedly as he grabbed it and shot it up to the sky with his hand. "Whoo, we did—ahh! Spearow!"

Unfortunately for the boy, he happened to shoot up his hand that was connected to the shoulder Spearow was using. This meant that the flying type instantly lost balance and fell to the floor, and stayed there because she was practically running on fumes. Ash hurriedly scooped up the flying type and ran for the Pokémon Center.

"Um Ash?!" Forrest called out, instantly stopping the panicking teen and making him look at the gym leader point in the opposite direction. "The Pokémon Center is that way."

"O-Oh thanks!" Ash then ran frantically in the opposite direction.

Sabrina sighed. However, she did notice that when Ash received his first badge… there was a sudden spike of psychic energy she could sense in the boy that she didn't before. Was he gaining powers?

There was a ring coming from one of her pockets. This made the older woman stand up and leave the gym as well.

When she went out, she made sure no one was nearby before picking up a phone and answering it.

"The Stars are blind my love." She said impassionately as soon as the call was answered.

"They will learn to crawl, under oceans above." The voice from behind the phone responded with equal amounts of monotone. With that done, the voice asked, "So, Bellelba, how goes the mission?"

"I'm here in Pewter City. And I'm en route to the Museum in a bit." She frowned hard. "I still don't know why I'm being reduced to reconnaissance of simple rocks."

"For 'simple rocks' as you call them, seem to be making our other lesser agents disappear without a trace."

Sabrina looked across town towards where the Museum of Pewter City and focused her power in that direction. There was a faint but familiar power she could feel emanating from the area she didn't notice until she made the effort to do so.

But why was it familiar—

 _{"You mean this?" He said as he picked the object that seemed to radiate living colors.}_

"I will do this for you and be on my way." She hung up the phone and then found herself looking towards the Pokémon Center.

It was odd. First she happened to sense a mysterious power coming from the Viridian Forrest and found Ash, who had somehow interested her with his strange existence and strange feather. Now, she was sensing something of similar energy coming from the Museum?

There was a possibility that this wasn't a coincidence.

* * *

+Author Notes+

Weird how one of the most normal chapters so far is a plain, old gym battle?

Anyway, say hello to Sabrina! I've got some plans with her in this story and here's one of them: I'm planning to make her Ash' traveling companion!

Now with her along, it kinda pushes some potential of Ash being able to use Psychic powers due to strange circumstances. Some of you thought that Ash would use Aura, and at first I wanted to. But at the same time, it would have made the story waaaayyy too predictable and I can't have that! Still, from what fics I read that give Ash super powers, they usually give him Pokémon that match him sometimes like a Ralts or such if he's psychic and a Riolu for Aura.

I'm not really going to count stories that give him both powers.

I wanted to switch that a bit and gave him a Riolu… for being a psychic. I think it has some fun potential.

Anyway, please review, favorite, and follow this story, thank you!


	5. Ep 5: Dangerous History

+Reviewer Response+

ToBlazePurple: Okay for now while the story is still young, I'm going to put review Responses here and I won't respond to all as much as I would like.

Jurrasicdiondrew: I appreciate your enthusiasm, but at the same time I have a rough idea of Ash's party in the future. I'm not saying there is no chance of what you want happening, but chances are this might not be the story you think it is.

Mokkel: Thanks dude. That's really nice of you to say.

Writer: Well that's all for now. Can't really respond to the others except with another thanks.

* * *

The attendant in the front handed the two museum tickets to Sabrina. "Here you go miss, for you and your son!"

The psychic user glared harder at the man than she had ever before in her life. "Do I look that old to you?"

He seemed a bit nervous but decided to try and answer. "Yeeeeeee," The man found himself holding that note for dear life after noticing Sabrina's hair starting to fly upward and her eyes glowing.

Meanwhile…

"It sure was nice of Sabrina to invite us over to museum with her after we won our gym battle." Ash said as they entered into the Pewter Museum. The place seemed to be in the middle of a party, and there were even food stands allowed inside.

From what Ash could read from the signs, the museum was promoting valuable relics from the mythological Pokélantis. Which was cool, he heard stories about that place. Something about it being a secretly advance civilization?

'Yep!' Riolu started chewing on some cheese sticks he got out of a small box. 'This place is awesome!'

Ash nodded before he realized something and turned towards his shoulder where Riolu was sitting. "Where'd you get those cheese sticks? I don't remember buying you any?"

!? The fighting type froze mid bite and looked back to his trainer with sweat starting to come from his head. 'UUhhhh you didn't?'

"So Riolus are capable of crime. I knew there was something I liked about you." Sabrina finally caught up with the two after buying them tickets. She had taken a bit longer than usual because… it was not worth mentioning.

'I didn't steal food.'

A few feet away, a man was complaining to a stand, "What are you talking about!? My order for cheese sticks was right here, where else could it have gone!?"

The two looked back to Riolu. 'You can't prove I did that.'

Sabrina found herself smirking. "It's too bad I can't read minds then." The smirk only grew when Riolu started eating more of the potential evidence.

"Riolu, you could have just asked." His trainer sighed.

'I'm sorry,' The little fighting type sniffed. 'I'm weak.'

Ash petted his partner's head before Sabrina realized she was staring and shook her head. She couldn't believe that the two had made her let down her guard for a moment. "I'll be heading towards the new wing. Don't touch anything."

"You make it sound like I'll break something here."

"You make it sound like something doesn't strangely break when you're near it."

Ash opened his mouth in protest, but found he could not really say much to refute it. However, his mood quickly came back up as he saw a section of the Museum on Pre-historic Pokémon.

With Ash gone, Sabrina found it much easier to slip back into her usual cold and unfeeling state and quickly made her way towards the new wing.

To her surprise, she had already spotted one of the missing Team Rocket members walking around the Pokélantis section in broad daylight. Sabrina was about to reach for that person until her powers sensed something off with the person.

She couldn't read her thoughts. No, that wasn't quite right. She couldn't _sense any_ thoughts coming from the grunt. She knew they were mindless before, but there was usually some sign of brain activity from the underlings before today. Even from dark types, she could at least sense the interfering energy disrupting her power, but it was like she couldn't even sense it at all, like she was trying to sense nothingness.

Curious, Sabrina shadowed the grunt as she walked towards a group gathering.

"Hello, and welcome everyone!" A pudgy man greeted the large group of people. He was on top of a stage that held some covered object which obviously meant it was important.

However, to Sabrina's bewilderment, the two security guards standing next to the mayor were two other missing members of Team Rocket and they also had this strange vacant expression along with her being unable to read their minds.

"Now," The pudgy man, who Sabrina assumed was the curator of the museum continued, "It is time to introduce one of the major artifacts of the new Pokélantis exhibit. Archeologists described this as an item said to belong to the last King of Pokélantis himself!" The excited curator went towards the sheet and grabbed on to it.

He removed the sheet with flourish, showing a large, elaborate golden tree statue. However, strangely enough inside the trunk, there were hundreds of masks, and it looked like some were even gone and removed from the tree.

Sabrina felt a little off in the presence of the fake tree, especially in the middle where there was a symbol of a blade stabbing through a rainbow.

It was then that the power cut out.

* * *

Ash and Riolu were sharing snacks and looking at a machine that could revive Pokémon fossils along with fossils only meant for viewing.

Then the power went out.

'We really can't go anywhere without something going horribly wrong, can we?'

"Welcome to my life, Riolu."

* * *

Sabrina was the only one who could 'see' in absolute darkness. She could sense it, over a dozen people moving in the darkness with purpose among everyone else panicking. The psychic user felt a spike of unrecognizable power coming from the tree before it shot out its masks outward towards a large majority of people.

Sabrina used her powers to stop a mask heading her way and crush it into pieces. However, everyone else was not as lucky as the masks seemed to attach to their faces and slowly but surely get absorbed through their skin.

It was then that the psychic woman noticed how the entire group of people except her inside this section of the museum had a mask thrown into them.

The lights of the museum went back up, signaling the backup power kicked in.

There was a sudden silence the psychic user noticed nearly everyone looking at her.

"Oh?" Sabrina moved back towards the curator whose eyes now looked strangely different than before. "It seems someone wasn't caught in the initial attack."

"Who are you?" The purple haired woman asked emotionlessly, but with eyes observing the area around them.

The curator walked with a powerful commanding presence that was never there before from the pudgy man with gray hair on only the side of his head. "… You must be a descendant of the Xatu Tribe. I recognize that harsh, cold stare, and overwhelming power."

Xatu Tribe? Descendant?

Now that Sabrina thought about it, the curator originally said the artifact was from Pokélantis and that the Team Rocket Grunts were sent originally to retrieve it to sell it off themselves. When it was in front of her, there were a few dozen or so masks missing. Now? Nearly all of them were gone. With all of these facts, and with what happened just so recently…

"You are lingering members of Pokélantis?" It was farfetched, but it seemed to make some amount of sense. Some people believe ghost Pokémon were once humans, and she had met people who didn't believe in psychics or aura users, so it wasn't truly a stretch to have something supernatural happen.

"Was that a question? I was under the impression your clan could predict the future. Don't tell me you're some diluted failure."

Sabrina bristled at the insult. Still, he didn't actually refute her question or deny it. Her theory about these being long dead soldiers who must be using some power of ancient times to stay alive was starting to seem stronger with each second.

"Actually, even if you are some outcast, your powers should be able to answer this question: where is our King's container?"

The psychic user seemed to have enough of this as her eyes started glowing red and her hair started to levitate. "I have no obligation to listen to you."

* * *

Ash and Riolu noticed how the exits around them were closed in with metal doors.

'What's going on?' The blue fighting type asked innocently.

"I think the museum is in lock down mode." Ash said before looking over to a guard in the corner talking to his communication device and not being able to have anyone answer him. "Can you sense what's going on beyond the walls?"

The fighting type closed his eyes before snapping them open and pointing behind the fossil restoration machine. 'There's some kind of weird energy in the place where Sabrina went.'

"Weird energy?"

'I don't know but it feels like energy in a battle.'

The young teen was rather worried for his older—what is this weird creeping feeling he was getting—friend. However, what exactly could he do to get to her safely besides wait around?

Well… there were the unsafe options, but he promised Mary he'd tone down on those!

'Whoa! I feel a spike of energy from behind that wall! I've never felt power like that before!'

Uuuuhhhh, but if his older—again, what is that strange ominous feeling—friend was in trouble, he had to help out!

"Sorry, Mary." Ash looked around to see if there was anything he could find that could help out.

'Man, if only I was strong enough to break down that wall…' Riolu folded his arms in disappointment.

The wall did seem thick. It would take a Pokémon from a higher weight class than Riolu to break it down, something like that Tyrantrum skeleton placed in the center of this section of the museum.

…

"Riolu?" Ash said as he slowly turned his head back to a certain area he was looking at awhile ago.

'Yeah?'

"Did you know that Professor Oak once showed us how to work a Fossil Revival Machine?" Ash stated emptily as he stared at the decommissioned one right in front of them.

'You don't say?'

"Yeah, I thought it would be super complex, but more recent machines are rather easy to put on. … Like this one."

'That is interesting.'

…

…

…

'This plan is going to go worse than we expect, isn't it?'  
"I give it a fifty-fifty chance."

* * *

The powerful psychic user back flipped to avoid being swarmed then pushed her left hand out, unleashing a powerful wave of psychic energy and tossing a good chunk of people like rag dolls. However, there were few that avoided the blast by creepily standing on all fours or doing impressive physical parkour feats with the other artifacts within this area.

Most of all, Sabrina noticed the strange shadowy power coming from the curator that seemed to animate itself and create a shield to block her psychic power.

"You are indeed powerful," The man wearing the curator's face began as the ghost-like giant behind him started to move out. "But you stand no chance against a Major of the Suneater Legion, Vious Zhan!"

Sabrina slowly raised a palm towards her opponent. "I have never seen power like that before." There was something about it that felt like that of a dark type. If that was the case, that simply meant this would be more taxing than she wanted it to be.

Vious seemed surprised before he laughed, prompting his beastly shadow to extend a tendril over towards and old, rusted stick that instantly turned into an ornate, black spear. "Blame that on the course of time, old hag."

And that was Sabrina's cue to launch another blast of psychic energy towards her opponent without any abandon anymore. However, just like before the shadowy power appeared and shielded Vious from being affected.

Instead, the shadow presence started to roar, making the other possessed people start standing back up as well. Soon, they too had much lesser shadow presences behind them.

The psychic unclipped several Poké Balls that started to fly around her. She needed more help—

*KABOOM!*  
"ROOOOAAAARRR!"

Everyone watched in stupor as one of the walls broke down and a living, large Tyrantrum came in and wildly started trashing around so angrily that it even made a giant banner that said, "New Exhibit!" fall down slowly while the extinct Pokémon roared mightily.

"Ahh, I see some things haven't changed." Vious noted before Sabrina swore she was hearing more than just the Tyrantrum.

A few seconds later, she noticed a familiar boy and fighting type holding on to the head of the dragon type and screaming for their lives as the dragon and rock type tried to throw them off.

Sabrina was not surprised to find her palm on her face and a headache coming on. She opened up her Poké Balls to reveal a Kadabra, Venomoth, Mr. Mime, and Alakazam.

She didn't need to give them oral orders. They practically knew what their mistress wanted, even though they were all briefly confused at the order to protect a screaming idiot and his partner.

Speaking of screaming idiot and his partner, Ash and Riolu were holding on to the red dinosaur as it started to head towards Vious.

"What the heck is that!?" Ash cried out as the possessed curator summoned his ghost like shadow that quickly grabbed and stopped the rampaging dino in it's tracks.

Vious made, with great effort, a show of strength and started to lift up the rampaging and formerly extinct creature. Ash and Riolu quickly got off as soon as the large Pokémon was soon tossed over through another wall as if it was a toy.

"It appears," The possessed curator mumbled out loud and swung his arms around as if to warm them up. "that my powers are far too rusty."

Riolu and Ash just watched the large red dino groan in pain after being launched into the air with ease.

Despite witnessing an amazing feat of power and strength, rather than be confused, Riolu had a different reaction. 'Ash, I hate how the week isn't even over yet.' The fighting type deadpanned as he glared at nothing in his direction.

"Well to be fair this is one of my worst weeks in a while." Ash quickly got back up when he and his partner turned to the possessed curator who was spinning his lance like a twirling stick.

"That was an impressive entrance, child, it's too bad that..." The curator suddenly froze. His shadowy essence seemed to step back in fear and the expression of the proud warrior turned to shock and fear. "This presence!?"

Riolu pointed to the curator. 'Whoa what's that on his face!?'

"How do you not see the strange ghost-like giant behind him!?" Ash cried out to his partner in shock.

"You! Are you an acolyte of Ho-oh!?" The possessed curator seethed with rage as he made his giant shadow raise several limbs up with the intention to crush the two. It was then that both and Kadabra and Alakazam appeared beside both trainer and his partner, and teleported them out of the attack.

Ash blinked before finding himself next to a rather interested Sabrina who was studying him carefully because of that moment of panic. "Why did he seem scared of you?"

The teen tilted his head as he tried to think back at the weird supernatural guy. To be honest, it felt like it wasn't the first time that his presence… wait. The new trainer removed his bag pack and fished out the Rainbow Feather he got from that legendary Pokémon.

As soon as it came out, every one of the possessed people all backed off from the light of the feather as if they were demons witnessing a holy artifact. Even the curator's ghost was seemingly shrunk from the mere presence of the small object.

"HOW DO YOU HAVE THAT!?" The curator roared in a manner of an angry beast while pointing over to the new trainer.

"Of course," Sabrina spoke up which made Ash look over to her. "Legends say that Ho-oh brought the legendary city to ruin when it's king became too greedy. Just a piece of his feather is enough to bring fear to the remnants."

"Wait that's the same legendary?!" The raven haired boy was not expecting to have met with such a powerful and ancient creature in his journey! Spearow and her people were practically right to call them gods.

It was then that one of the possessed men, in a fit of rage, ran up to the boy holding the feather. "Lies! How dare history besmirch our grand king!"

"Wait, no! You fool!" The curator cried out to the random person before the light of the feather started to glow even brighter. The light blinded the man attacking and suddenly his face began to crack in the presence of the light.

The light seemed to laser in on the face of the random stranger and soon the person fell, their face completely shattering to reveal one of the masks pieces left on the face of a person.

Ash blinked. "Soooo what's going on?" He looked towards the older—wait why was she glaring harder—friend.

"Long story short: ancient magic. I'll fill you in after I take care of this. Care to hand me that feather?" The purple haired woman placed her hand out before Ash to which the young man handed over the glowing feather.

She then gave a smirk towards the remaining possessed warriors and with a smile, snapped her fingers.

It was at that moment the feather started shooting off like a bullet, moving close towards around a dozen people cluttered close to each other. The feather shined, causing the masks of the people to break and the people they possessed to fall harmless in the ground.

"Everyone, retreat! We were not expecting a power from that damnable, multicolored rat with wings!" With their leader's order, some of the people started to run away.

The curator's eyes narrowed before moving in with uncanny speed towards Sabrina with his large shadow attempting to hit her with spiked tendrils.

Sabrina's partners created a shield of psychic energy to block the attack. However, even with four, the barrier was cracking under the force of strength by the supernatural spirit.

The psychic motioned the feather back towards them, at the same time, Vious jumped up and punched the roof with all of his tendrils, causing the roof to collapse on everyone.

All of her partners and Sabrina herself used their combined powers to prevent being crushed by the rocks. Ash noticed the feather and quickly picked it up, as he did, he noticed Vious retreating in the distance, picking up an old rusty spear before letting his shadowy power grab and hurl the spear right for…

"Sabrina!" Ash cried out as the psychic user was caught off guard and looked back down towards the speeding weapon right for her face!

…

…

The psychic user blinked once, then twice as she saw the spear frozen right in front of her. She glanced over to her Pokémon, but saw they were all holding up the many boulders from collapsing on them. Following the gaze, she turned to see Ash… with his hand extended out and actually exerting telekinesis?

'Ash!?' Riolu looked in surprised as he sensed the energy to stop the spear came form Ash himself.

Vious saw this and narrowed his eyes. "Once we find our King, you will rue this day, chosen of Ho-oh..." he whispered before he went off.

It was then that the spear seemed to stop floating and just harmlessly fell to the ground. Sabrina and the others gently put down the boulders and she looked over to Ash who was looking at his hands in disbelief.

"H-How did I do that?" Ash asked out loud.

Sabrina was silent but thoughtful. "It appears you do have powers after all," Half truth half lie. A lingering form of her power was still in Ash for some ungodly reason. "But it's obvious you have no idea how to use it besides instinct and the idea of being saved by a complete amateur isn't acceptable to me."

"Huh?" The teen looked up to the purple haired adolescent with confusion on his face.

"It means that you have no idea how to use your powers after activating it, do you?"

"What? I can probably control it!"

Sabrina only pointed a finger to Ash's left side, making the teen look up to a floating Riolu who was struggling to seemingly get a grip in the air.

'… Yeah, I think she knows what she's saying.' Riolu, while upside down said this before the power lifting him up suddenly stopped and he fell back into the ground.

It was then that a new voice came from the hole in the wall where Ash and Riolu broke through.

"Hey! Hey! I go out and try a different escape route, but when I come back there's a huge hole, the fossil revival machine is activated, and the Tyrantrum skeleton is gone!?"

A guard cried out as he came through the entrance the two made a while back.

Ash and Riolu flinched, more so when they noticed Tyrantrum getting back up from where he was thrown.

Sabrina sighed. This was going to be very tricky.

* * *

Ash kept his head down as he walked back to the Pokémon Center. Apparently, despite his intent to help, he did technically commit theft and destruction of property. If not for Sabrina, he might have actually been put to jail for what he did. He could hear his mother or any of his friends where here, they would definitely be scolding him for being too rash again. He really needed to work on that.

"Thanks for speaking up for me, Sabrina." Ash droned in sadness.

"Don't thank me, I lied to them about there being thieves. I doubt that anyone would believe me if I started talking about ancient warriors from long ago with powers no one had ever seen before." It was a bit easier for the purple haired woman to be _persuasive_ in letting everyone forgive the young boy for saving her life. Granted, she couldn't do it fully, it would cause too much questioning if a guard started acting like a brain-dead vegetable, just a little more persuasion in forgiveness and how both she and Ash had nothing to do with this made most of the guards believe they were innocent, which they were.

Quite odd that she had to use her powers for once to prove their innocence rather than falsify it.

"What was that anyway?" Ash asked in confusion. First it was a weird group of super powered people, now ancient magic guys from long ago? His adventure was getting rather unpredictable to say the least.

"Who knows, but I think we should change the topic." Sabrina answered before looking over to Ash. "How are your powers?"

The raven haired teen blinked. He did recall that he was able to stop a spear from piercing through the woman. He stopped for a second and looked to Riolu who seemed kinda excited to see what he would do.

Ash looked over towards a park and lifted his hand out. He tried to find that same feeling from a while ago—

CRASH!

And he snapped his head around, seeing windows behind him shatter as if hit by an invisible force. People were moderately panicking.

"RUN! THE STREETS ARE HAUNTED AFTER ALL BY THE GHOST OF THE WINDOW HATER!" One rather passionate person screamed before everyone but Ash and Sabrina vacated the premise.

…

…

"Well, it seems your raw power is a little wilder than I expected it to be." Sabrina then looked to Ash. "I believe it's in your best interest to stay with me until I can teach you how to keep your new powers in check."

Ash looked to her with bright eyes. "Really!? You'll teach me how to use these powers?!"

More like she would pretend to until she found a way to get those powers back but, "I have nothing better to do, and I'd rather you not shatter every single window we pass by."

Ash seemed rather excited to find out he could use powers! "Check it out, Riolu! I can use powers too!"

'Cool! … Are we going to tell this to Spearow?'

The raven haired boy paled. The idea of telling this to Spearow might only make the flying type beam with pride and demand that Ash be just as strong as her.

The young boy was not looking forward to her trying to shape him to her belief.

* * *

"Major?"

"At ease soldier, what did you find?" Vious looked across the new unfamiliar land before them while not turning towards the soldier behind them.

"We have secured a map of the current world sir, but that's not all."

Vious turned around with interest. "What is it?"

"Sir, it appears by the end of the year, the planets will align much like they did years ago."

A large smile appeared on Vious' face as he heard this.

"Then we best find our King soon. The Ceremony of Ascension will not be stopped this time!"

* * *

+Author Notes+

Hey folks! Hope you like how the story is being built so far. Ash can't get a break, but hey! It seems like he gets psychic powers! I have a really fun idea late in the future about this…

Anywho, thanks so far for your patience. If you enjoy the story, please follow, favorite, and review!


	6. Ep 6: Fire Of The Heart

A rubix cube. It is a colorful puzzle in toy form, and it is mostly known for helping challenge and promoting growth of one's critical thinking.

For Ash Ketchum, the rubix cube had another purpose. One he was having a lot of struggle with.

"You lack focus." Sabrina stated with all the delicacy of a doctor insensitively blurting out that his patient had only a year to live.

The rubix cube was actually levitating between the two humans. Sabrina and Ash were sitting down on a blanket. The two had their legs crossed and Sabrina was watching Ash attempt to solve the intricate puzzle without using his hands and was only using his powers to only move the sides.

Ash groaned before the rubix cube was dropped, only to be caught from falling by Sabrina with her powers before it levitated to her hand.

"I thought psychics start off with bending spoons." The raven haired teen groaned as he felt sweat coming out of his forehead.

"That is grossly exaggerated and not at all helpful for a psychic's control." Sabrina shot down his complaint as the purple haired psychic made the cube float near her head without any effort. "The purpose of giving you a rubix cube practices many things at once. First off all, control over your power. This is a regular plastic toy and if you exert too much of your telekinesis on it when trying to turn any side, you will break it."

As soon as she began, the rubix cube started to turn and twist by the older psychic's will.

While it was moving, Sabrina continued. "The second is accuracy, moving small things helps sharpen the focus of your powers." As she said this, the twisting became faster and faster until it stopped and the colorful puzzle toy was complete with all solid colors on all six sides.

Sabrina opened her eyes, and made the rubix cube start to float towards Ash's hands. "And third, and one of the more important reasons why I had you practice this is because it will teach you patience and discipline. You are far too reckless and emotional and that is a very bad trait among psychics especially since our powers have more potential to go out of control than that of aura users."

Before it reached his hands, the cube suddenly shifted itself quickly to the boy's surprise, revealing it had been mixed up once more.

"Now, do it again." Sabrina said with finality, causing Ash to groan and try again.

Riolu sighed as he watched his trainer doing his own training. He was bored. Really bored and wanted to at least play or train with Ash again.

*Fsh...*

The fighting type blinked and turned around, seeing nothing but a river stream not to far from where they all were.

The little fighter tilted his head slightly as he was confused at what he was looking at. Was there someone watching them just now?

* * *

Ash's brain felt fried even though he, Sabrina, and Riolu were already making their way towards the base of Mount Moon where there was a stationed Pokémon Center.

"That was one of the more pathetic displays of psychic power, I had ever seen." Sabrina and mercy obviously did not go together as the new teacher declared that while making their way through the path.

"Uuuuuhhhh," He pretty much lost count, but Ash groaned again.

Seeing her student make a fool of himself again, Sabrina simply decided a different topic was in order. "So why again are we heading towards Mount Moon?" The psychic user looked up to the mountain in the distance since it was easy to see from their point of view.

At the change of subject, some of the teen's energy came back as he stopped slouching and said, "It's on the way towards Cerulean City where I can get my next badge. I need to hurry and get ten before I get back to Viridian City."

Sabrina seemed to absorb that. At least her new student had some big ambitions compared to some of her other followers…

Her thoughts went away when the sight of a red building caught both of their attention along with the sounds of cheering in the distance.

In front of the Pokémon Center, there was a crowd of people that was circled around an area where attacks were flying outward, which signaled that there was a trainer battle going on.

And when it came to battles, Ash was almost never tired of those. Curious, the teenager went ahead, wanting to see the battle itself up close.

Yet this time there was this nagging feeling at the back that he felt like he knew what was going on. When the raven haired boy finally saw the battle, his eyes widened.

On one side was some older teen he didn't recognize, but the one he was really paying attention to was his opponent: it was Gary Oak.

Gary was smiling confidently as he usually did with such pride, he could make the mythological Narcissus pause and say the boy is full of himself. With that same ego, he ordered his Wartortle to use Water Pulse on the enemy Camerupt.

"He did always seem partial to water types after learning about Blastoise." If Ash recalled, there was a conversation saying that on raw stats, it was theorized that Squirtle had the strongest potential out of all three starters. It makes sense that Gary was able to gun for the Pokémon he saw as the best, and he was already evolved too.

It wasn't long before Gary won the battle, defeating the trainer, and smirking as if the battle wasn't even a warm-up. To be fair, after three years of practice battles, Ash would have to agree using a slow and powerful fire and ground type against a mobile water type was a horrible thing to do if the Camerupt was not used to it's strengths and weaknesses properly.

The other boy from Pallet Town had this smirk as he looked over to his defeated opponent. "Was that all? I only had to use my Wartortle!" Ash rolled his eyes. It seemed like Gary's ego was just as big as before.

The raven haired boy felt something land on his shoulder and looked to see Riolu looking at him with obvious confusion.

"That's Gary… one of my friends." The raven haired boy began as Gary recalled the water type.

'That's a different tone than with Mary.' The fighting type noted.

"Well, you're about to see why." Ash sighed before walking forward past the crowd and crying out, "Gary!"

The brunette actually stopped his victorious smirk at the sound of his name. When he turned to the voice, his face actually showed an emotion beyond prideful ego, genuine surprise.

"Ashy?"

The raven haired boy fought the urge to frown at that annoying nickname. However, a small smirk came back to Ash as he greeted in return. "Hey, Gareth."

Gary noticeably twitched at the name. His face turned into a more curious look. "How are you here? I was under the impression you were back in Pallet Town for missing the starter Pokémon."

Ash smiled proudly. "Ha! When you guys left, the egg Professor Oak received from Professor Rowan hatched! So I could go on my journey!"

Gary watched when Ash motioned to the Riolu sitting leisurely on the other boy's shoulder. The brunette then shrugged. "Well it doesn't really matter whether you enter or not, because I'll be the first ever Pokémon Master."

"Oh yeah?" Ash bristled at the declaration. "How many badges do you have so far?"

"Three, duh." Well that blew up in Ash's face very quickly. "Got one from Viridian, one from Pewter, and my most recent one from Diagon City."

From what Ash recalled, Diagon was north of Cerulean City. "Wait, how did you get to Diagon City before the gym from Cerulean City?"

"That was a bit of luck really. After winning my badge in Pewter, I found out there was a monthly luxury bus in Pewter City that was going to bring people over to the casino area of Diagon City. The bus fare was pretty reasonable but they only sold round trips, so I had to take the luxury bus back to Pewter after a few days. But in the long run, it means I only need to go to Cerulean City once instead of returning back there to get out of Diagon." Gary explained before smiling. "So, Ashy, how many badges do you have?"

"O-One."

"One!?" The brunette laughed, making Ash flush. If the raven haired boy wasn't so tired and mentally exhausted, he might have been more tempted to use his new psychic powers to drop his rival's pants in public or something… even if there was a chance of him over doing it.

Gary stopped laughing for a second as a look of surprise retuned in his face. "Hold on. You should have passed by Pewter and Viridian. Why only one?"

Ash was about to answer that he skipped the Viridian Challenge because he was aiming for the ten-badge challenge. However, there was a sound of something coming towards the two boys from Pallet Town.

From the opposite side of the battle field where Gary's opponent was previously, there was now a small crowd of people heading towards the duo. It seemed like that group was led by a really pretty girl with wavy brown hair, bright gold colored eyes, fair skin, and an attention-catching figure who wore long white stockings, a green-blue skirt, and a white long shirt worn under a green-blue vest.

"I heard someone here was a pretty good battler," With very little effort, the girl had stolen all the attention in the area and made even those who left after Gary's battle come back just to look and listen to her. "Are you him?"

Gary spun his Poké Ball in his finger just to show off as well. "Maybe, who's asking?"

Ash had look of deadpan towards his childhood friend. Great, there was another Gary? Was the world coming to an end or something?

"The name's Giselle Pondell," She really only needed to say her names once for everyone to remember it. She then looked over towards Gary. "And you are?"

In response to the question, the brunette smirked. "The name's Gary Oak."

However, to the surprise of both boys, Giselle seemed to scoff and raise her brow. "What? Are you related to the famous Professor Oak?"

"Yeah what about it?" The new tone of the girl made Gary raise his brow in confusion.

The girl then pointed towards the brunette. "Then that means this guy is a complete nobody! He's just ridding on his grandfather's fame to be a trainer!"

At that moment, Riolu felt two emotions he didn't expect. From his trainer, Ash, he felt fear? But from the friend of his trainer…

"What did you just say?" From cocky, Gary's eyes narrowed towards the girl whose posy seemed to be eating up all her words..

"What? Are you deaf too? I bet you get even rare Pokémon because your grand dad is a famous researcher."

Ash turned to his friend with worry. "Gary, don—"

"Listen here, punk!" Gary stepped forward and seemingly missed what Ash was about to say. "I got this far on my own, not on the name of my grandfather!"

Giselle's group stepped forward, with the obvious intent to protect the girl insulting Gary. "Puh-lease! I've seen your type before, you believe just because you've got a famous person as your relative, you think everything is handled to you on a silver platter."

Riolu had never seen someone's anger spike up like never before, especially in someone like Gary.

"I am my own person! And I'll prove it in a battle!" Gary gripped his Poké Ball tightly as he glared at this trainer with rage.

"Ha! Prepare to lose, brat!" The pretty girl with a ugly personality was quick to reach for her own Pokémon.

However, before they could even begin, someone screamed out loud among the crowd and pointed.

"IS THAT ENTEI!?"

Everyone, even Sabrina, followed the voice as the crowd saw in the distance, on top of one of the rocks towards Mt. Moon, it was one of the legendary fire types of Johto: Entei.

Riolu gasped as he realized something. 'Hey, he's the presence I felt a while ago!'

Ash looked to his fighting type in shock before looking back towards Entei as he started to walk away from where he was seen.

The appearance of a legendary in front of so many people prompted all the trainers there and made everyone make a mad dash towards the legendary Pokémon.

Ash noticed Giselle and her crew forget everything that happened and focused solely on catching the legendary in front of them.

The raven haired boy looked over to his childhood friend who seemed to have his hand trembling in anger as he looked down with a dark glare. "I'll show them!"

"Gary, wait!" Ash cried out as Gary ran ahead with reckless abandon. However, Ash was too shocked to really chase after his friend and found himself watching the brunette chase after Entei as well.

At this point, Sabrina was walking up to the young teen. "Your friend seems as reckless as you."

"He usually isn't." Ash then started gripping his fist before looking determinedly at the place Entei was. "Riolu, you sensed Entei, didn't you?" After a small nod, The raven haired trainer continued, "Can you hunt him down from here?"

'I don't really know? Entei had this weird energy that I couldn't detect properly. I might only know where he is generally, not specifically.'

"That'll have to do, let's go!" Ash cried out before running off on his own.

Sabrina was about to stop him but sighed and stopped herself. "That boy needs to stop being so reckless. … Still, a friend huh?"

* * *

The fast pace of footsteps could be heard as Ash Ketchum raced through the forest. Just like everyone near the Pokémon Center, the young boy was in search of something, but this time it was not necessarily the Legendary creature that everyone spotted.

"Riolu, do you sense him?!" Ash looked to the fighting type riding on his shoulder as the small blue creature had his eyes closed.

'No, I can't pick him up anymore. There's something weird in the air that makes it hard for me to sense aura anymore. It was just like that night you got the rainbow feather.'

The teenage boy didn't like the sound of that. However, to his surprise he felt his pocket vibrating at that moment. He fished his pockets to find the Poké Nav he had received from Team Instinct was vibrating. Ash opened up the device, and saw Spark at the screen of the device.

"Yo, Ash!" The cheery leader of Team Instinct waved hello.

"Hey, Spark, why are you calling?" While he was glad to see the young man, Ash was curious as to why he was calling now.

"I received some reports that there's been sighting of a legendary around your area!" Wait, how'd he know that? Then again, with how many people were joining the three teams, it wasn't too far fetched to assume that out of all the trainers in the Pokémon Center, there were some from Teams Mystic and Valor who told this to their leaders, and Spark just learned it from them. "Apparently, you're one of the only Instinct members close enough to it! Listen, Blanche and Candela are already sending their guys to either catch the guy or record him."

To be fair, the teenager would like to try and capture a legendary since he missed his chance the first time. However, there was a much higher priority on Ash's list currently.

"I basically want you at least to capture a video of the legendary on your Poké Nav. The data will really help in the future for research and somethings Professor Willow says is important for the future." Huh, Ash sometimes said that about Professor Oak's teachings, they sounded really important but he couldn't always grasp what it meant. "Think you can do that? My friends and I are getting all our members in that area to work together and do so."

"I'm currently looking for the legendary right now." Ash said which was partly true. "I'll call you again after my search." Before his call ended, Ash was distracted by Riolu suddenly moving and digging through his bag pack.

After he ended the call, the teenager looked towards his partner with confusion. "Riolu? What's up?

'So I've been trying to sense things while you were talking, yeah?" His voice sounded somewhat muffled as he still searched inside the backpack. 'I said that the energy was like that night with the legendary then I realized we had an item that did have a strange energy signature!.'

Riolu popped his head out of the bag and jumped back into Ash's shoulder. In his palm was the Rainbow Feather. 'I think it was this feather again.'

"Wait, now that I think about it, the legendary trio of Johto all had a connection with Ho-oh. So does that mean Entei was here… because of this?" As soon as he asked this, Riolu handed the feather over to Ash.

When Ash held the feather, the two heard the sound of something coming their way. To the surprise of the two, Entei himself had appeared right in front of them.

From afar, the Pokémon looked really cool, up front? Ash couldn't help but feel in awe of the presence of a creature that was said to have control over volcanoes. The teen instantly threw out Spearow's Poké Ball, making the flying type's first view of the day a Legendary Pokémon that her kind viewed as gods. And he took out his Poké Nav and started recording after putting back the feather.

'So, does anyone want to fill me in as to why we are directly in front of a god?' Spearow asked casually while flying up near Ash's head.

"In my defense, I was actually looking for my friend first." Ash said while he noticed the camera function of his device was recording the great fire type.

'Ash, I have been with you for only several moons and I already know that trouble finds you more than what you attempt to find.'

To their surprise, Entei started to crouch, as if he was getting ready for a battle.

Spearow was first to huff in pride. 'We are being challenged. We must accept!'

Ash started to sweat and put away the Rainbow Feather back into his backpack. A battle with a Legendary Pokémon now of all times? He had to admit he felt that would be more than a daunting task, but at the same time…

He was going to have to face these guys in order to be a Pokémon Master.

"Riolu, Spearow, flank Entei from opposite sides!" Ash took charge, already commanding his two to run off as his fighting type ran left while Spearow flew right.

Entei seemingly watched his opponents get into a better position. Riolu attacked first, firing rapid attacks of Vacuum Wave at the fire legend. Entei took on each attack as if it was just a gust of wind. Spearow used Aerial Ace and vanished after hitting a point of speed. All though she landed a direct blow right into the forehead of Entei, like Riolu's attacks they did nothing to even make the legendary blink.

In fact, with how Spearow backed off and complained as if her beak had hit a mountain, it was safe to say that they were wwwwaaaayyyy out of their league.

But Ash was never one to give up that easily as he called Spearow near him and then shouted over to his first partner, "Riolu, try that Aura blast you did in the gym!"

The fight type quickly gathered aura around his fists and brought them together, he shot both fists out as two giant Vacuum Wave fists rocketed towards the legendary beast.

To their surprise, Entei actually moved out of the way of that attack as the fists crushed several trees behind the fire type.

Ash wasn't done yet and pointed. "Now, Spearow!"

Entei, for the first time, actually had his eyes snap open as he looked up to see Spearow rushing right for him. The flying type summoned a phantom of Riolu performing the same move and fired another aura enhanced blast right for the fire type while in close range.

The result was that the attack of Riolu actually landed and was able to push Entei a few paces back. But even with that impressive double offensive, Entei still seemed to be observing them, but now it seemed… interested at something.

"Okay," Ash noticed as Entei looked back at them observantly. "This is going a lot worse than I expected it to." Despite that coordinated attack, Entei really didn't seem hurt at all. But it was very strange. What was Entei doing just avoiding and taking all these attacks?

"There you are, Entei!"

Ash turned his head at the sound of the new but familiar voice. "And it just keeps getting worse."

Gary had arrived, looking straight at Entei with his own determined look in his eyes. One that didn't look too healthy.

The other trainer from Pallet town threw out four Pokémon, his Wartortle, an Eevee, a Nirdorina, and an Electabuzz. He then pointed and said, "Battle!"

Ash and his Pokémon felt the need to step back when Gary's party launched an attack on Entei wildly. The fire type made more effort to move as he avoided the attacks of all four Pokémon.

The fire type raced around the attacks and eventually circled back and tackled—an actual tackle not a real move—Gary's Electabuzz through several trees.

Instead of worrying for his knocked out partner, Gary growled in anger and ordered Wartortle to use Water Pulse.

'Ash, what do we do? Do we help them?' Riolu asked as both he and Spearow watched their trainer.

Ash watched the battle, or rather, Ash watched how Entei was playing with Gary's party. However, Ash obviously noted that Gary wasn't battling at his best at all. Both of them have battled each other for years, and Ash knew Gary was being very sloppy.

"I… I don't know." Ash stated as he and his Pokémon continued to watch Gary slowly get more of his Pokémon knocked out by Entei until he was left with Wartortle. The water type tried to fire a powerful Water Pulse on the legendary once more. However, it seemed like Entei had enough playing around and unleashed a burst of fire that easily evaporated the water attack.

Ash instantly noticed the attack wasn't going to stop and ordered his Riolu to use Quick Attack. The fighting type ended up running fast enough to tackle the water type out of the way of the fire blast that blew off a cliff nearby where they were.

"Ash, butt out! Entei is mine!" Gary yelled to his old friend.

However, before he could react, Entei started moving again. This time, it was towards the cliff and it seemed to be running with the intent to go jump off it.

"No you don't!" Gary cried out as he opened up a Poké Ball and ran after the legendary.

"Gary, wait!' Ash cried out as he stopped his video and ran after his friend.

The two trainers ran for different reasons. Entei was moving faster before he jumped off the cliff with the intent to leave. Yet the legendary underestimated something. He underestimated Gary's blind devotion to catching him.

The brunette still ran towards the fire type with his hand reclined back. He then pulled his weight forward and threw the red and white capture sphere towards Entei jumping in the air. The fire type could have easily avoided it, but at one instant, the cliff edge the boy stomped hard on cracked beneath his feet and even reached Ash's area behind him, causing the two to start to fall. Entei was horrified and that horror distracted him from avoiding the Poké Ball from hitting him and absorbing him.

Entei, Ash, and Gary ended up all falling into the forrest below. Riolu and Spearow cried out for their trainer and quickly ran towards the cliff.

'Riolu, where are they!?' Spearow quickly turned to their resident scanner.

The emanation fighter scanned the area then promptly face palmed. 'Ash left the Rainbow Feather back in hiss bag. That object has been sending out a weird energy today that been messing with my scanning ability.'

Spearow viewed the area and made herself fly a little higher. 'Alright fine, I'll try to see where they are, you handle the ones who were injured here.' Then she dove down to find where her trainer and that future pecking target went.

'Hey wait! I'm a fighter, not a—' Riolu's cries went ignored as the flying type already dove into the tree and away from his sight. '...healer.'

Riolu looked over to Wartortle waking up to him.

The two blue creatures just stared at each other in awkward silence. Riolu, looking back at Wartortle's allies finally said, 'Sooo… by any chance are you related to a Chansey or something?'

* * *

While Ash and Gary were falling down, the young teen tried to focus as best as he could.

" _Think of a Rubix Cube! Think of a Rubix Cube!_ " With that thought process, Ash threw his hand towards a screaming Gary. Unfortunately for the boy gravity was still far too powerful for either him or his friend. However, there was something else he could do. Moving fast, Ash made a large amount of trees move their branches to lessen the fall of both him Gary.

It worked! … Sorta. Crashing through a large amount of branches wasn't exactly the cleanest landing. As well as actually eating some of those leaves on his way down, but Ash could be grateful when he needed to be.

"W-What was that!?" Gary cried out as he found himself relatively safe and looked towards his childhood friend in disbelief. "Did you _move_ those trees!?"

Ash blinked. "Oh yeah! Gary, I've got super powers now!"

The fact that Ash stated that so cheerfully and without a hint of lying in his tone, Gary Oak could only gape before his brain gave him a more manageable answer. "Oh right. It's Ash we're talking about. Of course you'd find a way to get involved with something as impossible as that like it's just going to a restaurant you've never been to before."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

The brunette got back up and said. "It means your bad luck is already a super power in itself. So you actually getting real powers isn't all that crazy."

"Well that's not… _completely_ true." The raven haired boy tried to argue. However, he noticed Gary moving in a direction that wasn't towards their party. "Hey, where are you going? We gotta get to your Pokémon."

"I'm looking for the Poké Ball I threw at Entei before we fell. It was not too far from us when we fell."

Ash doubted that Entei was still in there. But with how Gary was doing this…

"Are you still mad about that day back in kindergarten?"

Those words were al it took to make Gary freeze in his tracks.

"Just because that bully said—"

"Ash? Kindly shut up right now." Gary stated as he walked ahead.

The raven haired boy narrowed his eyes and got back up as well. "Gary, you're not even caring for your own Pokémon who got beaten up by Entei! You can't let what that jerk said about you being related to someone famous get to you!"

The brunette sharply turned back towards Ash with an angry glare. "That is so easy for you to say! You have no idea what it was like! Just one stupid sentence! Just! One! 'Oh, you only say all those things because your grandpa gives you everything!' That one sentence was all it took for everyone to stay away from me!" The other person snapped as he shouted that out loud.

When they were much younger, Gary was still as proud as he usually was. However, one kid was either jealous or had enough of his boasts, maybe both. In annoyance, he accused Gary of only being the great things he says simply because his granddad was famous and that if he didn't have that, he would be just like the rest of them. Because kids were kids, they quickly isolated Gary after realizing that he had a point. Gary was actually ignored for some time in their preschool before everyone became more distracted at what Ash accidentally caused.

Still that small period of everyone avoiding him just because he was related to professor Oak traumatized the brunette.

"I'll show them all! I am my own person!" Gary pointed a thumb at himself. "And I'll prove it by capturing Entei! Something my gramps never did!"

With that, Gary stormed off, moving in the direction he saw the sphere a while ago. Ash grunted.

"Ugh! He's being as reckless as me! … Huh, so this is how that feels like." Ash said before shaking his head and trying to run after his friend.

The two ended up running until they came across an empty field near a river, across said river was a mountainous area with dirt, large boulders, and etc.

However, back on the grass, the two boys say how the Poké Ball Gary threw was still on the ground, as if untouched.

"No, way..." Ash gasped as the two looked over towards the ball. The area around it seemed completely untouched and there was this feeling that maybe, just maybe. "Did you actually catch it?"

Gary's face looked like he was just shocked as his old rival but as he made a step forward to see if there was something inside.

However…

"Oho?~"

The two boys were surprised by the sound and then they were distracted when a Digglet popped his head underneath the white and red orb before it took it under it's hole it dug up.

"Hey!" Gary cried out before the Digglet popped back up near the legs of none other than Giselle and her posy.

"Oh lookie here, I caught the legendary fire type!" Giselle mocked as she held the spherical device in her hand.

"No you didn't!" Ash called out and pointed. "Gary was the one who threw that in the first place!"

"Ha! That guy already can get anything he wants because of his family, why should he get a Legendary to boot when he clearly didn't earn that right?" The brunette girl declared with ignorance.

Words like anger and hate were weak to describe what Gary Oak was feeling at that moment. However, instead of it being unleashed, it was cooled down when Ash spoke up.

"Says the thieves who stole it from him! I've known Gary since we were kids, and I know for a fact he would never steal someone else's hard work for his own! Gary works hard for everything he does, you jerks are the real losers!"

"How dare you!" Giselle fumed at the words from Ash. However a smile came up as she looked back to her group.

She and her posy brought out a dozen Pokémon out to face the two. "You think your both all that huh?"

Gary seemed to step forward, much to the confusion of Ash and said with a straight face. "Listen here, and listen now," Gary pounded his chest. "I'm going to be a Pokémon Master, not because of my family, but because **I** want to prove to people that I am my own person. But now I have to thank you actually."

"Thank us?" The dark brown haired girl looked in confusion at the brunette from Pallet Town.

Ash's friend and smiled. "I now realize that the people I really needed to prove already know I'm my own person. People like you can just go jump off a cliff," Gary realized both he and Ash just jumped off a cliff and added, "And actually get hurt from it."

Giselle had this look of hate in her face at how Gary seemed to look down on her. "Oh that's it! Everyone, take those two..."

She was interrupted with a roar that made everyone turn back towards the river.

On top of one of the rocks, Entei was snarling angrily towards Giselle and her group.

The girl bully looked over towards the sphere she was holding. "W-What!? I thought you were in—"

Entei performed a loud and prideful roar to interrupt Giselle. The roar itself made all of Giselle's followers and their Pokémon run in fear except the girl. The stylish girl looked back in fear before running away herself after her posy.

The two boys looked back towards Entei. With that gang of people gone, the fire type seemed much calmer as he looked over the two.

Gary swallowed before stepping forward. "Thank you for that… and sorry for a while ago. You were only caught because you were worried for us when we fell."

Entei seemingly looked at Gary with an unreadable look on his face before he slowly turned away and then started leaving.

As the two boys watched the legendary Pokémon leave, Gary felt the need to speak up. "I owe my party an apology don't I?"

Ash patted Gary's shoulder. "Don't worry, we all know you cause so much trouble for your friends."

The brunette gave the raven haired boy a deadpan glare. "May I remind a certain someone of a certain event pertaining to a certain vehicle!?" From deadpan, Gary was full out yelling, not of anger but out of frustrated annoyance.

The raven haired boy tried to defend himself. "Look, if you could drive before even reaching ten, then so can I!"

"My totaled car begs to differ!"

"Hey, last time I checked, I was trying to save your life when you got poisoned and paralyzed at the same time!"

"The four of us almost died when we let you in the wheel!?" Gary shouted back before grabbing Ash's collar. "You still owe me 200,000 dollars!"

"You're the rich guy among us! That's chump change for someone like you!" The raven haired boy argued before pushing Gary away from him. Gary was somewhat upset before pushing Ash back and then Ash pushed back… then Gary punched him… then Ash tackled him down and—yeah I think you guys get it.

Spearow soon followed the sounds of two boys grunting and spotted the two fighting and slugging it out and performing some grappling moves on each other.

She did the only thing reasonable thing.

'Yes, Ash! Prove your dominance over your fellow man! Watch out for that left hook! Duck and use Upper Cut! Oh that was a nice dodge, don't let him control the pace of the battle!'

Okay, maybe cheering the two on in their fist fight was the opposite thing of being reasonable.

Soon after, both of their Pokémon eventually caught up. Surely they would stop the two from their petty squabble.

'Oh wait! This means we can have our own Trainer Battle!' Riolu what even is that. 'Ash, duck and use Elbow Slam on his stomach!'

Ash did duck a swing and slammed his elbow onto Gary's stomach, causing the brunette to buckle.

Gary's Wartortle pumped up. 'Don't give up, Gary, use sweep kick!'

The brunette did so, sweeping Ash off his feet.

'Oh wow that worked!'

'Come on, Ash, roll and throw dirt into Gary's face!'

'That's dirty! Gary, avoid and throw Ash into the river!'

By this point the two party of Pokémon were getting very into the trainer battle.

* * *

Sabrina felt the urge to look up and then said nothing as she saw a bunch of Pokémon walk into the center while carrying two beaten up trainers. Among the two was a boy she was very familiar with, much to her dismay.

"Oh my god! What happened to them!?" Nurse Joy cried out as she looked at the two boys.

Sabrina wisely decided to continually drink her tea. She was not wasting her precious time with that again.

* * *

"So within that entire brotherly bonding though your fists," Ash wouldn't call it that but Sabrina did have a way with words better than him. "You didn't once try and see if you could use your powers?"

"…" Ash blinked before he felt his eye get sore again. "Yeah?"

The purple haired woman didn't even know how to react to that. She placed down her tea on the table booth the two were sharing for their dinner and kept asking, "Yet, despite being beaten to a pulp, why do you seem so content?"

That question seemed to catch the teen by surprise. "Well… Gary's alright. I was worried since back at home, he gets testy when people say that he's only certain things because of his Grandfather."

Sabrina said nothing even though the gears in her head was turning. She had no idea that Ash had direct connections to the famous researcher of the world. That connection has potential to be exploited in the future for sure.

"It's also why he wants to be a Pokémon Master, he wants people to see him as his own person, not by the shadow of someone else." Ash explained.

Now it was Sabrina's turn to be surprised, or for her, open her eyes up a little in curiosity. "You don't say? Then tell me Ash, why would you like to be a Pokémon Master?"

"… What?" The raven haired boy tilted his head, but then felt a jolt of pain as he did so.

"You said Gary is becoming a master in order to get out of the shadow of his grandfather. It's a valid reason, but what about you? Why do you want to be a master?"

"I..." For the first time since she met him, Sabrina noticed this look of doubt come across the boy's features. "I just really want to be."

"So it's just because you want to then?" Sabrina was quick to ask.

Ash didn't want it to sound like that, but at the same time it really was hard to disprove her. "I… I..."

"There's nothing wrong with having selfish ambitions since all of them are selfish in some ways, Ash," She had many of them galore. "I'm just pointing all of this out to you because a strong conviction is also a good motivator and can help drive you to become a better trainer like you wish. This simply means that you need time to reflect, why do you really want to be a master trainer when you can easily be something else?"

It was then that a maid came in and gave the orders of the two.

Ash silently stared at his food. As if that would tell him what he needed in his journey.

* * *

+Author Notes+

Hey guys, thanks again for supporting this story.

I wanted to say something weird and say that I kinda liked Gary when I first watched the series. He was kinda cool to me as a kid, and I ended up liking him a lot more as he developed into a more chill and mature trainer. I'm kinda sad that nearly everyone else either treats him like crap or in the opposite side of the spectrum makes him Ash's love interest. (To each their own I suppose. Even though it just confuses me how much people ship anything.)

So yeah, I wanted to say that I respect Gary, and by extension all the other Rivals.

* * *

[Extra Scene.]

"So no one was able to get a picture of Entei?" Professor Willow asked both Blanche and Candela while they were inside his lab.

"We've had many eye witnesses say that there was a sighting, but no one was fast enough to capture a picture." Candela explained casually.

"It's quite a shame," Blanche moved her hand towards her chin thoughtfully. "It is said that even Entei can casually run on water, getting some picture, even while in motion could help understand what type of power of movement it has."

It was at this point that Spark came into the room. "Sorry I'm late guys! Some things came up!"

"Was it another toaster?" Everyone asked the blonde team leader who was smoking slightly.

"How do you guys always know that?" The Leader of Team Instinct asked honestly before realizing something. "Oh hey, Professor, here's a video of Entei you wanted." He then put a usb drive on the table in front of the professor.

All three of them looked at the yellow leader as if he had spontaneously exploded. "One of your members was able to capture a picture of Entei?"

Spark blinked. "Well, he actually caught a video. He even battled it; Entei was super tough though."

The idea that it was Team Instinct, almost always the dead last among the three teams, was the one that not only took a picture, but had footage of seeing the legendary up close and some of it's battle skills were recorded was amazing!

It only promoted one kind of reaction from all three colleagues.

"WHAT!?"

Unfortunately for them, that was going to be the first of many to come.


	7. Ep 7: Mt Moon Pt 1

"You aren't focusing." Sabrina coldly stated as she saw the floating rubix cube move even slower than before.

"S-Sorry," Ash weakly said as he lifted it back to his hand.

The two were currently walking through Mt. Moon on their way to Cerulean City, meanwhile, Ash was having trouble doing things he had much easier time doing yesterday.

Sabrina had a feeling that the young new psychic was distracted.

"As I said before, psychic powers are based mostly on mental strength. Emotions may push certain bursts of power, but they are dangerous and hazardous to people like us where we can hurt ourselves by whims. It is best to remain completely emotionless."

Ash was silent as he heard that. Was that really the way to master these powers? But then again, he's been feeling all kinds of bad ever since he's been thinking about his reasons for wanting to be a Pokémon Master.

His friends had more reason to become a Pokémon Master than just wanting to be one. And his mother had always told him that simply wanting things out of simple want was never a good enough reason. He wished he could explain why he wanted to be one, but he couldn't really put it to words than other just wanting it really bad. And the more he thought about it, the more he felt kind of ashamed for pursuing it so passionately when others had at least more reason and drive for theirs.

These thoughts were even eating into his training in both his powers and for his partners.

'That doesn't sound really nice.' Riolu, who was walking beside Ash, stated out loud.

It was at that point that Sabrina put her hand out to stop the boy from moving. "Wait," She said before narrowing her eyes at the surrounding area.

"What's up?" Ash asked.

Sabrina continued to glare as it seemed like she was gathering power.. "We're being watched."

"Pokémon?" Ash looked around and saw no one before looking to Riolu.

The fighting type simply closed his eyes and sensed the area. 'Weird, there is this strange group of Pokémon around us but there's also...'

The blue Pokémon didn't get a chance to say what he was going to say when around the group, blurs of pink rushed for all of them, screaming as they did so.

With a throw of her hand, Sabrina froze all attackers mid air before the group. It was revealed that their attackers was a group of Clefairy. What was strange about this group besides they were trying to attack the group, but they were also covered up with many ripped pieces of metal over them like makeshift armor and such.

One of the larger Clefairy tried to struggle out of Sabrina's hold but it was a futile attempt. 'What kind of mysterious hold has prevented us from assailing our target!?'

Sabrina felt a twitch in her right brow after hearing the rather animated accent of the fairy type trying to attack them. However, she still wanted to be in control of the situation. "I'll be asking the questions here, why did you attack us?"

'And why does that one have an apple on his head?' Riolu pointed over to one random Clefairy among them.

'Ha! You earthenoids will never understand the mechanizations of our mentally superior race! Years would pass before you can even fathom how we are stealing shiny objects for our own gain!'

Ash blinked before replaying the fact that he did just say what they were doing. "Uuum?"

Sabrina quickly interrupted her student. "Don't ask what I know your going to ask first.."

It was at this point that Riolu pointed behind them towards one of the rocks in the area. 'I still feel one more coming our way.'

The expert psychic among them felt the presence too and quickly snatched the creature turning a corner.

However, it was not a Clefairy that greeted them, but a rather tired looking Jigglypuff.

'My apple,' The new pink Pokémon called out as he seemingly reached for the red fruit despite being held in place by Sabrina's psychic power. 'My perfect apple.'

Ash felt bad for the small newcomer and swiped the apple off the head of one of the attacking Clefairy's. He then handed it over to the Jigglypuff who seemed to gasp at having his apple returned and seemed to have water start forming in his big, puffy eyes. 'My perfect apple! I'm so happy, I can sing!'

Despite the elated joy of the new Pokémon, the leader of the Clefairy scoffed. 'Ha! Pitiful pink thing!'

'Is this a case of the pot calling the kettle pink?' Riolu asked out innocently before the rather passionate Clefairy continued.

'You have never heard true Clefairy music before this very moment! Behold as I show you what true singing is all about!'

Surprisingly, the Clefairy had a pretty decent voice.

"Huh, he's not… not..." Ash began complimenting before he found his eye lids were much heavier than before.

It didn't take long before both Ash and Riolu fell to the floor sleeping.

Sabrina realized that the foolish Clefairy was actually using a Sing attack that made everyone who hears the voice sleep! She quickly tried to throw the fairy type away but it was too late, her sleepiness was overwhelming her and she ended up dropping everyone else.

The lone Clefairy stopped singing as he then realized that his captors were down and out, along with the rest of his men.

'… A-ha! I totally knew that was going to happen!' Even though no one was listening, they could still hear the BS of such a claim. 'Now my brethren we must mug them all of their electrical belongings!'

The passionate Clefairy was only met by the sounds of snoring of multiple sleeping figures. 'Okay, this might take a while longer than I thought.'

* * *

Ash was feeling his head aching when he woke up. The teenager was wondering why he was on the floor until memories came flooding back to him. He snapped his head up and saw that all the Clefairy were gone, it was just him, Sabrina, Riolu, and that Jigglypuff.

Wait, his back felt lighter than usual— "My backpack!" The raven haired teen cried out as he realized that his belongings were missing.

His cry woke up the others. Sabrina especially was hard on herself for letting a fool make a fool out of her as well besides stealing her Pokémon.

"Riolu," Ash turned to his fighting type. "Where are they!?"

The little fighter quickly tried to use his powers, as did Sabrina, but Riolu was the one who said what both had found out. 'They aren't in range anymore.'

"What!? But they have all our stuff!" Not only his necessities, but his badge, the Team Instinct Gear, and the Rainbow Feather was still in there! He couldn't let them keep those things!

'Aaww! They stole my perfect apple again!' The Jigglypuff whined sadly before puffing up with an adorably mad face. 'I'm gonna get them this time!"

Jigglypuff ran off before stopping in his tracks and turning towards the others with a confused look on his face. 'Aren't you coming?'

It took a few seconds for Ash to realize what the other pink puff ball was trying to say. "Wait, you know where they went?"

'Yeah, I've been tracking them for a while ever since they stole my food!' That would explain why the Jigglypuff was found coming after the Clefairy group. 'You wanna come? It'll be fun, friendly friend!'

Ash got back up and looked to his other companions.

"Unfortunately, we don't know where those creatures ran off too, so there really isn't much of a choice." Sabrina commented on their situation.

This was the cue Ash needed as he pumped his fist. "Alright! Lead the way, Jigglypuff!"

'Yay! Imma gonna get the apple back with friends!' It seemed like Jigglypuff was rather easy going as he then led the people after the strange group of technology stealing Pokémon.

The group ascended higher and higher until Riolu and Sabrina started sensing a large amount of Pokémon in the distance.

Sabrina made everyone sneak around and hide behind a large rock overlooking the large amount of beings before them.

Surprisingly there was a lot more Pokémon than just the Clefairy, there were many other types of Pokémon gathered around and none of them looked too happy.

"What's going on here?" Ash asked what everyone was wondering.

"… Riolu, have you spotted the Clefairy that stole our items?" Sabrina asked the fighting type while viewing the area.

'No, they're all too clumped together and… wait… what's this weird air I'm feeling?'

As the emanation Pokémon said this, further beyond the group of Pokémon was a crowd of poison types that walked with all the swagger of people who believed themselves untouchable. Even among that crowd, there was a Nidoking that looked bigger than the average one that had some kind of cut right above his left eye. Around his neck was a glowing gold orb that even Ash could feel a power he had never felt before, which was saying something considering all the weird powers he was meeting over the course of his journey so far.

"What is that Nidoking wearing?"

Ash found an answer to his whisper when he heard Sabrina say, "It's a Life Orb, an item that gives power to all moves at the price of sapping a small piece of energy from the user, I've only seen that rare item once, but they're usually purple, not gold."

'It must be some kind of treasure!' Jigglypuff happily yelped before Riolu and Ash shushed the pink puffball.

Yet, Ash noticed that the presence of the large Nidoking made everyone else seem to cower in fear. These few actions gave the teen a bad feeling rising from his stomach.

The Nidoking stepped forward. 'People of Mount Moon!' He cried out with a voice that echoed through the area with such force there were some vibrations felt by those close to him. 'Today we celebrate freedom from the previous King's tyranny!'

No one cheered at all.

"Well this is something I never expected," Everyone glanced towards Sabrina as she said this. "A hostile take over. I've heard some worse off Regions have more criminals in charge of government but who would have thought Pokemon could have political coups as well?"

The Nidoking went on. "To ensure my reign, we shall now begin the execution of the prince!"

"Execution?" Ash repeated. It wasn't because he didn't know the word, it's just he wasn't expecting to see a real one outside of the many television dramas he and his mom watched along with her new boyfriend.

Everyone watched as they saw a male Nidoran be dragged out in a metallic rope by one of the tougher and meaner looking Pokémon. He seemed to be gaged as well as he angrily glared over to the much bigger Nidoking.

'His execution shall be to be tossed off the mountain!' The Nidoking cried as only his warriors seemed to concur out in joy.

Sabrina noticed the opening just behind the Nidoking. Indeed, there was a cliffside that seemed to have a large drop that would hurt anyone that didn't have the ability of flight. Still what did this have to do with all the Clefairy stealing their goods? Speaking off them, Sabrina spotted the Clefairy not too far from the Nidoking commanding this large group of Pokémon were they stealing their gear for them?

"We should wait until those Clefairy are separated before striking." Sabrina knew that attacking them with this many Pokémon would be hard for even her. Not to mention there was something off about that Nidoking that she didn't quite understand.

Yet there was something else that bothered her: Ash made no attempt to respond to her.

She looked to where the boy was—or as she soon found out, where he no longer was. It wasn't just him, both Riolu and the Jigglypuff had vanished near her. The Psychic soon found herself furious at both Ash for trying to naively play hero in this, and herself for not _realizing_ the boy was naive enough to play hero at this situation!

The psychic user then noticed Ash and the two Pokémon sneaking their way towards the cliffside. As The Nidoking and his loyal followers pushed the male Nidoran closer towards his doom.

"If he didn't steal my powers somehow, I swear!" Sabrina snapped as she felt the need to stand up.

Meanwhile, Ash, Riolu, and their new companion were stalking through the stalagmites as if they were embodying all spy movies he had seen before, slowly making their way towards the son of the previous 'tyrant' albeit a bit over the top with how the boy and the two creatures were trying hugging each rock a little too hard.

'And with this!' The scarred Nidoking roared as he pushed forward, imposing over the smaller creature from his evolutionary line even though he was still a few feet away. 'Is the end of my brother's legacy!'

An Arbok then whipped it's tail to smack the bonded poison type off the cliff. However, to the surprise of everyone, the Nidoran was found floating mid air.

'Wow friend!' The Jigglypuff was holding Ash's leg as he saw him use his powers to keep the poison type mid air and safe. 'You have powers!'

Riolu noticed Nidoking and his devout followers looking around as they saw the floating Nidoran. 'Alright, Ash, what's our next move?'

The confident and brave face on Ash's face turned into one of realization. "Oh shoot. I didn't think that far ahead."

A Loudred serving under Nidoking's guard turned and pointed over to the rocks Ash and the two Pokémon were hiding behind. 'There! They are interfering with the execution!'

It did not take long for the Nidoking to turn with a look straight out of a demon from hell towards those interfering with his execution.

"Well there's always the running plan!" Ash didn't hesitate to yank the Nidoran towards him and caught the little purple Pokémon in his arms. No sooner than they got him, Ash and the other two bolted from where they were.

Instead of being baffled at the appearance of strangers, the Nidoking made the move that was detrimental to that of the travelers.

'CAPTURE THEM!' Nidoking roared before inhaling. There was a gleam from the golden life orb the evolved poison type was holding before he unleashed a powerful Blizzard right for the trio.

However, a large amount of rocks were thrown to intercept the attack and prevent Ash and the smaller creatures from being frozen solid by the rather powerful attack.

Ash and the others looked back and then realized who among them could pull of such a move. "Sabrina!"

The older psychic user had a look on her face that was worse than the Nidoking. "You will be punished for doing this later on."

Ash swallowed his spit as his imagination seemed to be coming up with many worst case scenarios that he knew were weaker than what she had actually planned.

Sabrina turned sharply as she threw her hand out to erect a barrier of psychic energy. No sooner than she did this, the walls rocks collapsed and out of the smoke, the Nidoking strode forward with obvious anger in his eyes.

'Uuuhh!' Riolu quickly grabbed his head. It seemed like there was a spike of energy coming from he Nidoking that didn't seem natural.

'Give me the child!' Nidoking barked as electricity actually started to dance around his hands.

Sabrina's eyes started to glow as she too felt a massive spike of power she was not expecting from one random Pokémon. She mustered another barrier as a large wave of electricity was shot at her and the others. She wasn't expecting such a powerful electrical attack to hammer her forcefield with enough power to cause it to crack and shatter as the attack finished.

"What the hell?" Sabrina gasped at the sheer power she was witnessing. Her eyes widened as Nidoking's maw started trembling with smoke and bright orange light starting to erupt form inside.

Ash saw this as well and with how even Sabrina seemed overpowered, he quickly yelled, "Sabrina! We need to go!"

His plan was solid, but it came too late. Nidoking launched the biggest Fire Blast the two trainers had ever seen right for them.

For one second, Ash felt something off. It took his brain a quarter of a second later to realize that Sabrina had lifted him up and pushed him away just before she tried to bring up another barrier to hold the attack.

"Sabrina!" Ash yelled out as he started falling through a stalagmite, knocking it over and making it a makeshift sled that started carrying the human and the three tiny Pokémon down a slope away from the attack.

The older psychic, as she felt her barrier cracking under the sheer force of the flames, sighed. "That boy and his bleeding heart!"

The fires exploded, causing a shockwave that blew Sabrina away and made her slam into the wall.

The Nidoking let loose a mighty roar when he realized the Nidoran escaped. He pointed to where the younger kids escaped and looked back to his henchmen. 'Find him you fools! He can't get away!'

However, as they passed by the unconscious human, they had found that the four had already disappeared.

* * *

'… They're going the other way.' Riolu turned back towards Ash and Jigglypuff as they removed the bindings on the Nidoran.

'You have my thanks, peasants!' Despite the tone in how he called them peasants, the Nidoran seemed rather grateful at the rescue.

Yet that was a point where Ash had to ignore in favor of looking to Riolu. "You said that Sabrina is still alright?"

'I still sense her, but she's moved somewhere where there's some kind of strange interference in the air. I mean it's not the same as the feather, but it's kinda annoying how I know my kind can sense energy easily, but here I am feeling a completely alien form of energy almost every other day.' The little fighter huffed and folded his arms, obviously disliking how the proud abilities of his species seemed to be reduced to more of a hindrance as he was met with another strange set of circumstances that impaired them somehow.

"Man I really messed up." That was an understatement if one could say. The boy had foolishly tried to stop an execution without much thought, earned the attention and wrath of a very powerful Nidoking, and had lost Sabrina who was definitely more powerful than him, and all of that was his fault to boot!

Fighting back more bad feelings, Ash looked back to Nidoran. "What exactly was that all about?"

The look on Nidoran's face darkened as he moved his head down. "My uncle… he did something..."

And then he began to tell his tale.

* * *

To understand my tale, you must understand the tale of the Moonlight Kingdom.

Long ago, before the humans first learned to travel towards the base of this mountain, there was a Nidoking, leading his tribe through this mountain. The first tribe was hungry, weak, and tired. Long have our people forgotten where we came from, all we knew was that we had to leave wherever we had come from, we had to leave even though the group was not fit for travel.

It was on this mountain, that my ancestor choose to stay for the night. However, at the dead of night, the clouds parted and my ancestor could see the moon closer than he ever could in his life, and the light of the moon seemed to shine on a special treasure that was later called The Orb of the Moon. Inspired and empowered, the first Nidoking had decided to set up a new home within the mountain and used the orb to ensure his people would flourish.

Ever since then, the descendants of the king had led the kingdom as they saw fit, each passing the orb to the next king. The problem appeared when some months ago, something fell from the moon and landed somewhere not to far from our kingdom, my Uncle claimed to investigate first, but when he came back he was so much different and overthrew my father. I could not believe that he was jealous of my father the entire time.

Excuse me, human? What was that about a, "The Pyroar King?"

? … Very well, I will continue. He had stolen the orb meant for the betterment of the kingdom, and corrupted it somehow. It was no longer purple, but now it was this bizarre and eerie gold color. I believe those strange pink outsiders were the ones who caused all this. Somehow, they were the ones that enabled my uncle to overthrow my father and there must be a way to defeat him and save my father's kingdom!

* * *

"Peasants!" That peasants thing was going to have to change. 'As king, you must assist me in usurping my uncle! He must pay for killing him!' Everyone could hear the anger and fury in the small poison type's voice.

'No friend!' Jigglypuff spoke up. 'To kill your uncle would only make you the same as him! You have to usurp him and let him live!'

'He killed my father!' The Nidoran cried out in a voice full of rage… that was followed soon after by tears falling down his face and him gasping and hiccuping. 'He… he just… he just…'

Anger and shock could only last so long. It seemed like, with how Nidoran was struggling greatly to clean up his tears, they wouldn't stop. The weren't tears of anger, they were the tears of a child who dearly loved his father.

This struck a cord with Ash as he to lost his dad, but he never really knew him in the first place...

Riolu suddenly winced. 'I think someone heard us! There's a group heading this way!'

Ash quickly turned back to Nidoran. "Your Majesty, we need to go!"

Nidoran sniffed before forcing a nod and the four once more ran away back into the forrest.

After Ash and his friends escaped a safe distance away, the trainer started to think. "Your Majesty, you said that your Uncle only started this because of a comet crashing nearby your kingdom right? Can you direct us over there?"

'Why would we go there?'

If Ash remembered correctly, there was an interesting entry about those particular pink Pokémon. "I have a theory that the Clefairy we met before saving you might be involved with all of this, but when I met them they didn't seem that all malicious. We need to go where your uncle met them and find out what he did to become super powerful."

He obviously had more to say, but with limited options, they all made their way. As Nidoran led them all towards their destination, Riolu suddenly jumped in surprise and told everyone to slow down and follow him towards higher ground.

Curious, but knowing that Riolu had the scanning ability, the other three followed the fighting type high.

No one knew what they were expecting when they would come to that point, though among what was running on their heads, a crashed UFO was not one of them. It was a flying saucer with a huge, gaping hole on one of the sides and scattered, weird looking machinery all around the crater in dug in to.

All around, Clefairy were sadly moving around while there looked to be other, tougher looking Pokémon standing around the edge and watching them.

'Hey wait a second, those surrounding the Clefairy,' Nidoran stepped forward to look better. 'Those are my uncle's men that he brought with when the crash first happened.'

"They're corralling them." The young man noticed. "Either that or they're prisoners of some kind."

It was then the boy felt a palm from Riolu. 'Ash, over there! It's the Clefairy that put us to sleep!' Ash followed the point towards a rather defiant looking Clefairy glaring angrily at the other bigger Pokémon watching his species. He was carrying a box—with his bag and items!

That more than likely meant that Spearow and maybe even Sabrina's Pokémon were there. If they had their help, things might turn around and they could all beat that Nidoking…

"If that's true, we need to get down there somehow. But the place is full of Nidoking's men and Clefairy. How would we get past them?"

To the surprise of all, Jigglypuff jumped ahead. 'Don't worry friendly friends! I have an idea!'

* * *

'Should we really be letting him do this?' Nidoran asked the human as they all watched from the cliff.

"You know, I keep asking that question even though they're already doing it."

Said plan in motion was about to have first contact. As the saying goes, no plan survives first contact with the enemy.

An Ekans looked towards the right and then… tilted his head. He turned his head towards a nearby Raticate. 'Hey does that Clefairy look different to you?'

'Look man, if they're pink and somewhat roundish, they're all the same to me.' The evolved normal type couldn't sound more disinterested if he tried.

Jigglypuff with leaf pointed ears and a scribbled on tail from a marker march in while being a bit bloated. It was a surprise that no one noticed that the bloated puff ball seemed to take shape of a Riolu.

So going back, no plan survives first contact with the enemy. However, it seemed if the plan was so stupid that it was dead in the first place that would mean that it could actually work.

'Don't mind me scary people!' Jigglypuff probably didn't need to talk in a muffled manner, but did so. 'I'm going back to doing enslaved people things!'

'Just keep doing free labor, Alien!' Just so we're clear: these are creatures so innocently unaware of political circumstances of human society. Let's also recall this was stated literally by the Raticate.

'Okie Dokie!' Jigglypuff and the bulge seemed to half float, half jump their way towards the inside of the broken spaceship.

Ash blinked as he saw the puffball go inside the broken flying saucer. "Man, my luck isn't just bad, it doesn't make a lot of sense either."

* * *

Being born for less than half a month or so, one would think that they couldn't wait to see what kind of unexpected twists life had in store for them. For Riolu, it feels like he got the short, or deformed end of the stick. What would getting a deformed end of the stick even mean in the first place? Is it deformed, or where all the other deformed and he got the normal one? Questions for later. Point was, the newborn fighting type was fairly sure the list of things he had seen in a lone month was already topping those who have lived 100 years.

Considering him being allowed to be eaten by a Jigglypuff and stumbling into an alien aircraft, it was hard for him to think otherwise.

Eventually, Jigglypuff did 'spit out' or opened his mouth for a slightly damp Riolu to step out.

The blue fighting type then tried to shake his body some what to remove some of the goo on him, only to have his fur fluff out when he did so. 'You know, I kinda wonder what your body is actually made off since I pretty much only felt a mouth and no stomach in there'

Jigglypuff looked at his puffball body. 'You know, I never questioned my anatomy until you pointed that out. Where is my stomach located? Or my brain for that matter? … Good question, friend!'

Riolu simply brushed it off and noticed that he and Jigglypuff were now currently in the broken space ship. 'I guess now we find Spearow or any of Sabrina's stronger Pokémon in here and storm the place against that Nidoking.'

The space ship was actually impressive… if it wasn't filled with dirt, burnt metal, and had dented walls that looked pretty bad.

Riolu and Jigglypuff started sneaking around until Riolu seemed to be distracted by something and led the puffball towards a certain area.

It seemed like a strange Clefairy-catered engine room where this large, glass like contraption was in the middle that was patched up somewhat crudely with duck tape while some of the machinery that was broken had certain human tech replaced awkwardly.

It was then that Riolu noticed the aura of the Clefairy being all alone and picking up some of Ash's tech stuff.

'There's only one of him. We can take him, Jigglypu—where are you?' The fighting type was surprised to look behind him and not spot his supposed partner and crime.

'What's wrong, friend? You seem sad.' The blue Pokémon snapped his head back to already see Jigglypuff in his poor disguise talking to the lone Clefairy.

'Of course I'm sad! That purple spiked, beast has kidnapped our leader! We can't even begin proper repairs to our ship because he's blackmailing us to make him and his army stronger. He even had us increase the power of that strange orb he brought in.'

Riolu instantly thought back to the golden Life Orb the Nidoking used. It was enhanced with alien tech?

'That's not right! We should get him back!' Jigglypuff pouted as he heard such sad things.

'How!? He has an army of those nasties surrounding us and we're not that good in a fight!'

'We can help with that!' Jigglypuff then reached for Ash's bag and picked up the Poké Ball and threw the sphere before Spearow came out.

The bird blinked before looking at the two pink creatures and the place where she was released. 'I am fairly certain Ash is behind this circumstance somehow.'

'Hello, friendly friend! We need your help to save all other of our friends from a super duper evil tyrant with alien enhanced powers!' Jigglypuff spoke to the flying type.

'And with that opening line, I am now certain Ash is involved somehow.' Spearow looked around and raised a wing. 'Riolu! Come here and explain what madness we are involved in now!'

* * *

While outside, just waiting for the two to come back out with Spearow or Sabrina's Pokémon, prince Nidoran suddenly stood up in a startled manner. 'Oh no.'

Ash, hearing the tone and seeing the sudden movement, quickly looked into the direction of where the royal poison type had just glanced. "Who is that?"

'One of my Uncle's greatest fighters, Ursaring. And he's heading towards the inside of the UFO.'

Ash started to panic. However, he had to calm down. It was obvious that Ursaring didn't know they were there, and if Riolu and Jigglypuff were still in the UFO, all they had to do was get Sabrina's Pokémon and they would stand a better chance. All they had to do was wait and not be reckless—wait, what was that cracking noise?

To the young boy's surprise, the cliff both he and Prince Nidoran were standing out was not as stable as they imagined it was. The two ended up screaming as the platform they were on dropped and started sliding down the cliffside. As they landed, Ash, who was holding on to Prince Nidoran, flew into the air and landed with a thud on the ground.

"Ow-ow-ow-ow!" Ash cried out as he felt his sore backside. However, that pain was ignored when he realized that everyone was now looking towards him and…

'Prince Nidoran!' The Ursaring cried out and pointed to Ash and the poison type, 'Seize him!'

Ash stood up and quickly moved away from a Primeape and Graveler trying to tackle him and placed Prince Nidoran down. "We need to get to the UFO!"

The Prince started to scurry as more and more of Ursaring's men raced for him. Ash and Nidoran started to make their way past the henchmen trying to swarm them. The newbie psychic was even able to use his powers to push away those trying to get to him, or for heavier target, lift and throw a metal object to hit them in their blind sides to keep running past them.

They were in the home stretch into the UFO when they both jumped back and saw Ursaring land in front of them.

'Sorry, _your highness_ ,' The Ursaring, Ash noticed, was wearing strange metal gloves that didn't look normal. He lifted them up, and they started sparking with electricity. 'It's time for your delayed execution!'

'Peasant!' Ash turned at the name and got his hand out to catch a small, thin, cylindrical device. 'Do battle with that traitor, in the name of the king!'

Ash, the thirteen year old, looked up to the six foot tall, three hundred pound creature with electro gauntlets and a wicked smile on it's face. "Yep, Emily's Uncle and Sabrina are scarier."

Ursaring roared before rushing Ash with those weapons of his. The teen, jumped back and put out his hand to push back the Ursaring. However, the large normal type was to heavy to be pushed back or bothered by the psychic wave, and just seemed angrier. Ash tried something else, grabbing a random object and having it rush fast for the head of the normal type. However, the towering bear simply smacked the fast moving metal away, making Ash's limited move set even more limited.

Ash then noticed the cylindrical stick he was thrown had a button on it and he pressed it—

Zhoom!

Ash then noticed the red laser sword that just popped out of one end. Psychic powers and a super advanced plasma blade? "You have no idea how happy you've made the sci-fi fan inside of me!" Ash elatedly screamed before using the advance weapon to slash at one of Ursargin's gauntlets.

However, his elation was stopped when Ursaring grabbed the laser part of that blade, yanked it out of a surprised ash, and broke the weapon in two.

Even for someone as cheerful as Ash, he couldn't help but frown at that. "Well that was fun while it lasted." Ash said before jumping back from Ursaring again. It seemed like he needed to use his powers again if he had any chance at beating this guy. But how? He tried before… wait. He tried using his power to overpower someone obviously stronger than him. Sabrina taught him how to use his powers to use even the small part of control…

Ash smiled as he put a hand out and used the force of his new psychic power. Ursaring didn't see the dirt fly up from below him and into his face, causing him to flinch and then _move his powered up gloves near his face._

The result was a funny image of Ursaring shocking himself before fainting into the ground.

Ash couldn't believe that worked before he noticed everyone else staring around him. It was then that Prince Nidoran ran on top of the fallen Ursaring and shouted, 'Clefairy! You are no longer slaves to my uncle! Rise up, and free yourselves!'

Even though he was young, he had said that with such command that the other pink Pokémon felt invigorated enough to follow his lead, especially since they saw the leader of their wardens fall.

Soon the Clefairy did attack, infected with courage and hope to see those oppressing them could be defeated. Their numbers and determination swept the tides and made it so that even Nidoking's men were overwhelmed by the pink force.

Among the chaos, Nidoran turned to Ash. 'You have done well, Peaseant. But please, I need your help to save my people. Will you help me?'

Ash nodded, he would never turned down someone in need and he also had to save Sabrina, even if she was going to punish him later on leaving her in the first place. "Don't worry, your majesty. Your uncle won't know what hit him!"

And with that, the two went off to join in the fight to free the Clefairy.

* * *

+Author Notes+

This is part one to a mini arc of the Ash's Bizarre Misadventure Series. It's a sort of cross between the Lion King meets E.T. in Pokémon form. Just typing that out makes me feel all giddy at how this one is going to go. It should end by the next chapter, where we're going to find out a little more details on what is going on.

I hope you enjoy this story of misadventures. Have a great day!


	8. Ep 8: Mt Moon Pt 2

Imagine yourself as a thirteen year old surrounded by otherworldly but damaged technology and an alien race desperate to save their leader. Now imagine you, the 13-year old, participating in a war council in order to pull off a violent revolution/coup leading previously said desperate alien race on like the end of your first week of being a trainer.

Ash Ketchum was starting to think he might be breaking records he didn't know existed.

After the rather chaotic skirmish with Ursaring's remaining forces and rounding them up and locking them in a special room, it took just a little longer to meet up with Jigglypuff and Riolu and how they were doing with their plan. However, despite being free, the Clefairy were indeed more worried than relived at overthrowing their warden. They would soon explain why such a reaction was present when they were supposed to be happy.

Apparently the outsiders had learned more about the situation. It seemed like the Clefairy had a leader, a Clefable that was trapped under Nidoking's thumb. Previously, as long as the Clefairy helped armed Nidoking's men, their leader would be spared. They took a risk in allowing Ash and co to free them and now they were on a time table to save their leader before news reached the tyrant's ears.

"Have you guys found where Sabrina's partners are yet?" Ash looked towards Riolu and Spearow.

'Clefairy said he knew where he placed them, he went to get them I think?' The fighting type answered.

'Time is of the essence!' Spearow cried out. 'We must move quickly before the chieftain of these people suffer!'

Ash looked towards Nidoran. "What do you think of our chances on a frontal assault?"

'Horrible. You all have fought well, but my uncle has trained some of the best warriors of my kingdom, The 27 Star-Sun-Saints-Of-War-Armeggeddeon-Generals!' Ash was half expecting Prince Nidoran to be joking, but after seeing his face actually sacred and horrified when he said that horribly over the top name of Nidoking's elite fighting force made Ash and everyone else realize that he was dead serious on the name. "It's how they overthrew my father so easily. And now they are powered up by more gears given to them by the Clefairy before we intervened here.'

While the boy was still thinking that there was no way that name was taken seriously, Riolu then spoke up. 'Ash! You can come up with an idea!'

Instantly his mind filled with all his 'ideas' and how they always caused problems for him and those around him. "I-I uhh, can't." He felt all eyes on him and he felt the need to leave. "E-Excuse me for a second."

Without even a response, the teen left the room and just started walking at a brisk pace away.

Ash felt really bad. It was his fault Sabrina was in this mess and now potentially the leader of the Clefairy was now endangered all because he didn't properly think things through. He thought he was trying to be less reckless, but it seemed like he was going in the opposite direction and causing more problems.

'Ash?' The teen turned to see Riolu, Spearow, Jigglypuff, and Prince Nidoran all behind him. 'What's wrong? Usually you have some really cool ideas.' Riolu began.

"I-I… I'm just not feeling it." Ash didn't really know how to express how he just didn't feel like he should be the ones to make a plan.

'Is this about that thing back with Sabrina and Gary a while back? About your drive being not good enough?' When the fighting type asked that, Ash turned back to his first partner in surprise. 'You haven't been completely yourself ever since then.'

"It's—" What could he say about it? That he was feeling so bad about himself that it was affecting him now that people actually needed him? Oh great, not only was he reckless, now he was down right causing more problems. However, seeing as Riolu could sense his emotions, what point could he do in trying to hide them? "You guys should be trying to figure out how to save everyone else without me. I can't really help you guys as I am."

'Do you really believe that?' Ash followed the deep voice towards Spearow who was staring hard at him. 'I have trained with the best of fliers my clan had to offer, each of them proud warriors in their own right. But there comes a time in all our training, even mine, where we have doubts of not making the ranks of honor among our tribe. You have a similar look to mine when I was very small and my father expected much of me. You have doubt written across your fleshy, weirdly-marked face.' The human curiously put a hand on his face and wondered if it was really that weird to Pokémon. And marks? Did she mean those visible dimples marks on his cheeks he thought looked like famous book character, Harold Pottings' scar?

However, Spearow went on. 'But my father taught me that doubt is a sign of not weakness, but of empathy.' Everyone looked to the usually hardened daughter of a warrior group that seemed to say something rather profound. 'We always question our abilities—our actions, and wonder if we could do better after mistakes have been made. We all do it, doubts are not signs that we are incompetent, they are signs that we want to be better.' Spearow had an unusually gentle, but still proud look on her face as she declared. 'So it is alright to doubt, but simply be better than before—for there is much to do.'

"… Wow Spearow that was really… well said." Everyone along with Ash agreed with what Spearow said. Nidoran seemed just a little confused but then Ash shook his head. "You're right! Now's not the time for mopping around when our friends are in danger! We still need a way to get back to the top of the mountain right?"

'More than likely my Uncle might be preparing his soldiers after not hearing from Ursaring. This group was small, but the amount of military power my uncle currently has is more than a quarter of the population of Pokémon all living in the mountain.' Niodran flatly stated, making everyone realize their odds of actually winning. 'I told you that a frontal assault was abysmal on our end.'

Ash knew things looked bad, but that was if—and only if they actually did decide to do a direct fight. "Nidoran, if we defeat your Uncle, and just your Uncle, would it be possible for you to take back the throne?"

The poison type blinked before nodding once. 'I know my people dislike greatly my uncle's rule. And more than likely, the main army only listens to the King. If we were able to usurp my uncle without fighting, not even my uncle's loyal forces would dare fight against the full might of Mt. Moon's army. But my uncle is a powerful fighter by himself—the best in the kingdom even before he stole the Sphere of the Moon and increased it's powers to what it is now!'

It seemed like the Life Orb was referred to a different name to Nidoran's people. But Ash realized that there was more problems than the powerful Nidoking and enhanced Life Orb, even though beating him even with all they had seemed like a challenge in itself.

"Your Majesty, where exactly would your Uncle be around now?"

'He would be at the very top of the mountain, there is a cave area that my father and my ancestors ruled officially from, the Spring of Luna. He would be there, basking in the false grab of power he did to take it.' Prince Nidoran explained further, he explained that near the very peak of the mountain, there was an opening that looked up to the sky above the clouds where the moon shined brightly over an area where there were trees and a mountain spring. He also explained it would be heavily defended the floors beneath it are designed to found off people attacking from the bottom. Even if they could get pass all the soldiers under the uncle, they would all be too tired form the trek back up and leave them weak for Nidoking to finish them off.

It was a literal uphill battle, both physically and metaphorically. Even with Sabrina's Pokémon, Ash doubted their chances of winning were high.

It was strange though, all of those things should have deterred Ash's group from even trying or risk horrible failure, but the young teen's heart was starting to race like it did in a Pokémon battle.

Unsurmountable odds? Ash Ketchum would admit that he absolutely loved the idea of challenging the strong trainers, but there were none here. So why was his heart beating excitedly? Maybe, there was just a part of him that just liked defying the odds, after all, his life was all about crazy things.

Regardless of how he felt, Ash found himself coming up with a plan that made him slowly form a smile that could make even the most stoic of poker players panic and lose their cool.

"You know, all those things sound bad… if we were going to climb the mountain."

The four Pokémon looked at the young teen in confusion, even more so when said human raced back towards the Clefairy and practically asked them to start building again.

* * *

Headaches and Psychics go more hand in hand than one would imagine, especially when it comes to awakening their powers for the first time. Sabrina hadn't felt a headache like the one she was feeling right now since… some nights earlier this week when she met Ash. Huh, underwhelming. She was sure that she was going somewhere with that train of thought. Oh wait, her headaches were non-existent after the first period of unlocking her powers until they came back when she met with Ash.

Ash.

That boy was going to get it as soon as she… wait. Where was she? And why couldn't she feel her powers?

And why couldn't she feel her limbs?

Soon, Sabrina found herself trapped in a personal Rock Tomb attack that nearly swallowed everything beneath her shoulders. To her surprise, there was Clefable that was similarly trapped next to her. It was then she heard growling and looked down to see a Mightyena and a Sableye snarling angrily at her.

"Dark types?" It took another second to realize that there were dark crystals forming some kind of pseudo crown on her head. It looked like the dark type attack, Embargo, but placed on her crown as if to disrupt her powers… which was clever now that she though of it.

'I see you are awake now.'

Sabrina tilted her head towards the left and found herself looking in surprise. There was a giant wall filled with paw prints of varying different colors and sizes of Nidokings. At the bottom of the wall, where the paw prints started to look older and more faded, there was this formation of stalagmites and rocks that made it look like there was some kind of throne.

And sitting on said stone throne, was the massive Nidoking with his right arm supporting his bored and annoyed look on his face. Seeing that the woman was awake, the poison and ground type wearing the golden Life Orb tied around his neck started to move.

Instantly after seeing the either natural or made stone throne, Sabrina realized that this must be the throne room of the kingdom the Nidoking stole. Or rather, as close to a room as possible considering this cave was somewhat shallow and there was a large, gapping hole on the opposite side of the throne where it looked out to a beautiful moonlit spring in the middle of a forrest.

Sabrina tried to use her powers. However, the Embargo around her head prevented her powers from activating properly. As much as she disliked this, she could respect that the Nidoking walking up to her seemed to have his bases covered.

'Where did you send the other flesh bag with the prince?' The purple creature asked.

Ash. Right. The fool intervened and saved the small creature, making them a part of this mess in the first place.

"I'd be sure to track him down if you remove this crown I have on." She told him a half truth really. She was going to track that boy down and punish him severely for getting them into this mess, but it was definitely not going to be under this creature's demands.

The scarred Nidoking huffed and folded his arms. 'And what's preventing you from using your powers to escape instead?'

Sabrina didn't even blink as she calmly said, "Do you know where he is then?"

The usurper growled at the question. 'I am going to take that as you saying you will attempt to escape once your powers return. Perhaps should just crush you here and now and do things the hard way.'

Damn, the brute was smarter than he let on. It was starting to look like her only option would be to agree to use her powers to find Ash alone. However, Sabrina was not one to be subservient to anyone.

'Please, don't hurt that old lady!' While the voice sounded concerned and caring, Sabrina almost snapped her neck towards the Clefable beside her for calling her old. She was in her early twenties dammit! 'She has nothing to do with this!'

Nidoking growled and motioned his hands. The rocks around the pink creature tightened and Sabrina fought the urge to thank the usurper right then and there.

'You be silent. As long as you're here, your people will do as I say.' However, the frown on the large Pokémon's face soon turned into a smile that could give goosebumps at first glance. 'Or at least, as long as your people think you're here, they'll do what I say...'

He raised his fist as electricity started to gather.

Yet, despite his dark attempts, everyone in the area was distracted when a large shadow was cast to block the moonlight.

'Wait, that's too solid for a cloud—' As Nidoking looked up, he gapped in awe at what he was seeing:

A flying, broken UFO, hovering just above the top of Mt. Moon.

Sabrina narrowed her eyes. She liked to think if she was a gambling person, Ash would be somewhere there.

* * *

"Alright!" Ash pumped his fist as they all saw the screen of Nidoking and his men looking in shock at them. "Now! Quickly land and we can swarm these guys before reinforcement comes!"

'Wait what?!' One of the Clefairy monitoring the controls of the ship cried out. 'You want us to land?'

Ash turned, along with the other non-Clefairy Pokémon including Sabrina's, towards the Clefairy in charge. "Uh yeah? Just land it quickly before they try to shoot us down!"

'But we didn't fix our landing gear! You only told us to fix our inside atmosphere flight capabilities!'

Ah. That was a problem.

'Not to worry, new allies! I have a solution to this problem!' The Clefairy that stole all of his gear in the first place, proudly stood up. 'Landing is simply another word for 'not flying'!'

Everyone else with a higher level of common sense instantly realized his wording and tried to stop him.

Emphasis on tried.

'For the QUEEN!' That specific Clefairy cried out and slammed his hand on a console, causing all power in the room to die out…

Aaaannndddd suddenly make everyone in the ship susceptible to that most inconvenient of universal elements, gravity.

"AAAAAHHHHHHHH!?" Both inside the ship and down below, everyone was screaming as the partly destroyed, alien craft descended down and crashed into the lake of the mountain, and caused a massive shockwave that enveloped the entire area.

* * *

And so with everyone dying by UFO crash, the story ends here—what? What do you mean there's more to this fanfiction?

Bloody hell, they _all_ lived through that? You're joshing me aren't you? Ahh wait, the lake? Oh right they did land in it.

Now this is just awkward.

Alright then, I'll have another go at this. Erhm!

* * *

Water was everywhere, flooding the entire plateau/secret lake on top of Mt. Moon. Among the water, there was a glowing orb that surfaced up by the rules of buoyancy. It was a Protect barrier that was casted by Nidoran, who carried Ash, Riolu, Spearow, and Jigglypuff.

'I didn't know you knew Protect.' Riolu looked towards the poison type.

'My mother knew this move, so I eventually knew how to do it too. I unfortunately wasn't able to get the others near us. I do hope they're alright.' Prince Nidoran said as they all floated near a rock and quickly all jumped on it.

No sooner than they did, the water around them froze solid and from out of the ice, a large fist punched out and grabbed into the solid ground. Nidoking came climbing out, gasping for breath, and not too long after, his eyes fell on to a certain group not caught in the water.

As of that moment, the attack force meant to overwhelm the super powered Nidoking was now reduced to Ash and four other small creatures. Some epic assault this was turning out to be.

' _Dear_ Nephew.' No one liked how he smiled as he said this and started walking towards them. 'So good of you to drop in.'

'Boo! Low hanging fruit!' Jigglypuff said before being elbowed by Riolu.

Prince Nidoran sharpened into a fighting stance. 'Uncle! You will pay for all the crimes you have committed! Kidnapping innocent outsiders, taking over the kingdom through a hostile take over, and desecrating the Holy Lake of Luna!'

Riolu innocently whispered to those near him. 'Wasn't that last one Ash's fault?'

"Hey, I wasn't the one who froze it!" The young teen quickly tried to defend himself though there was really no need.

'Ha! That spring is nothing but a reminder of the weakness of our line!' Nidoking cried out as he threw out his arm. Ash felt a little bad that he was thankful for the greedy usurper derailing all blame from him. ' And with you here, I can get rid of the last trace of weakness in our Kingdom!'

Nidoking's first move… was to jump really, really high.

"Scatter!" Ash cried out as him and the other four did indeed run away from being crushed by the Nidoking. As soon as the evolved Pokémon landed, the ice around them cracked all around as rock spikes started shooting out of the frozen water, along with random Clefairy that were still trapped in ice chunks with some of Nidoking's men, who Ash and his friends just assumed they were the 27… people… things—their name was hard to remember alright?

Oh, perhaps it wasn't a good idea to reflect on other things considering the Nidoking was actually very powerful and very dangerous.

"Guys! Hit him from different angles!" The boy cried out.

Riolu was first to act as he fired his double fist Vacuum Wave right for Nidoking and Spearow copied the same move with her Mirror Move technique. The two fists raced towards Nidoking, but all he did was simply stomp the ground, and it instantly launched him up to the air. He brought his hands up together and slammed them hard through the air. No sooner than he did this, a large blast of electricity came form above and tried to strike Spreaow if she didn't hightail it out of there with Agility.

In that same move, Nidoking's maw started twitch open and glow with an orange light, he let loose a powerful Fire Blast that Riolu could only avoid by using Quick Attack and jumping on the rocks instead of running on the frictionless ice. The result was a large chunk of the ice there had suddenly evaporated, it didn't even seemingly have time to turn into water for long!

Ash gritted his teeth. Nidoking was Fast, powerful, andwheredidthatchunkoficecomefrom?!

A rather large, truck sized chunk of ice with some Clefairy in it was thrown at Nidoking with amazing speed. The tyrant was actually knocked into the air by the thrown iceberg before a second later, it shattered into pieces because Nidoking had somehow enflamed his fist and punched through it with one blow.

Ash acted quickly and concentrated, grabbing the Clefairy now falling among the debris and pulling them all towards where he was. He then looked over to his right to see where the ice chunk had come from.

"Jigglypuff!?" The small, round puffball was carrying a humongous chunk of ice and rock that was easily fifty times it's own weight over it's head!

'Yoom... TAH!' The pink puffball then threw the ice rock towards the Nidoking once more, who only dove to avoid the cold boulder being thrown off the mountain.

Riolu, who wasn't that far from Ash and currently perched on top of a slanted rock spike, shouted out loud, 'How is he doing that!? I have more muscles in my finger than he does in his whole body!'

"I think that's the move Strength! I didn't know Jigglypuff knew that!" Ash's scream was cut short when Nidoking slammed onto the ground, causing whatever remainder of the ice to crack into even smaller pieces, and making the ground beneath everyone shake uncontrollably.

Jigglypuff and Spearow avoided the Earthquake attack by being airborne, but at the same time, that made them both the new targets of Nidoking as he raised his palms and electricity started blasting towards the two.

Meanwhile, Ash was rubbing his head and looked towards the six or more Clefairy he saved. "You guys alright?"

Much to the teen's relief, they all responded in some way, either actually saying words or pained groans. He'll take what he could get. The young boy found himself fallen into the ground where he was surrounded by frozen, cracked water. Focusing, he was able to exert pressure on the ice and free the Clefairy around him. "You all try to find anyone on our side. We'll handle Nidoking." The teen elected to omit the word _somehow_ from that last sentence. How exactly could he and four other non-evolved Pokémon stand a chance against a fully evolved and powered up…

Wait a second.

Ash couldn't find Riolu, but instead he tried something as the Clefairy left. He could _link_ with Riolu, maybe… with his new powers, he could do the same with the others? Well, he never tried anything beyond telekinesis, but how hard could the mental aspect of psychic powers be from the physical ones? Sabrina would argue that he was no way near ready, but Sabrina wasn't there so no one would. Luckily, he did have some experience with Riolu otherwise he might have accidentally blown up their brains or something—that is probably a thought he shouldn't start thinking about when using this power.

(Guys? Can you hear me?)

(What?!) Spearow's voice he heard even though the sounds of electrical blasts seemed to be aimed in the opposite direction.

(Ash!) That one was the only familiar one so of course that was Riolu.

(Wow, friend, how'd you do that!?) Jigglypuff seemed pretty upbeat and not weirdly bothered by having another voice in his head.

(I-What is going on?! Why can I hear you all!?) That was Prince Nidoran.

Ash, seeing as how he had fallen into the ground, spotted an area he could climb and stick his head out safely above the lengthened, frozen water level. (Oh good it worked! Okay, so I'm trying a mental link of sorts since I doubt I can give proper commands over large distances fast enough. Spearow, Jigglypuff, how's it going?)

(Horribly!) Ash felt the ground rumble while Spearow linked up. (We're just moving targets to this foul madman! I wish to engage in close combat and rip his horn off his head and shove it into his eyes!)

And he imagined that way too vividly. Shaking his head from the imagery that might have been shared to everyone, the teen continued. (Keep your distance, Spearow, I think he's doing his best not to make you get close. Anyway, guys. Getting us all together was plan one! If we want any chance to beat this guy, we need to take away his power boost! Get that Life Orb away from him!)

The four small creatures looked back towards the Nidoking, more specifically the golden orb that was tied around his neck and giving him access to these strong powers. Ash was right, take that away and it would decrease the power he wielded!

The teen was quick on the command. Riolu and Nidoran got back up and fired their own long range attacks. Riolu with a rush of Vacuum Waves and Nidoran with a stream of Poison Sting. Even though these made contact on their target, it showed that they weren't doing enough damage to do nothing more than annoy the ground and poison type.

After briefly telling himself to work on stronger moves in the future, Ash ordered Spearow to swoop in and aim for the necklace around Nidoking's neck. Her speed was fast enough to move in and grab the string around his—

Everyone noticed how when Spearow tried to yank it, the string like object suddenly turned silver and the daughter of the chieftain found her self pulled back and grabbed by Nidoking's palm. The purple creature then threw her into the air and blasted the flying type with a concentrated Ice Beam from his hand. The result was Spearow being forzen in a block of ice and falling into the ground.

"Spearow!" Ash and his Pokémon didn't understand what had happened to the necklace! It should have been easy to remove!

'Ahhh!' Ash flinched in surprise and almost fell back to the ground when he saw a Clefairy somehow got close to him without notice. Where the heck did that one come from? His question went unanswered when that Clefairy pointed towards the necklace of Nidoking. 'That's our tech! That necklace can obviously increase it's structural rigidity and arrange it's molecules to become closely knit enough to prevent nearly negligible molecular motion!'

"… Right!" Ash said after a second of trying to soak that all in.

The pink alien eyed the human cautiously before saying, 'The necklace hardens when you try to rip it off?'

"Oh that makes much more sense!" Ash relayed that to the others. (Guy's were going with plan B!)

Riolu and the two other remaining heard the plan. The fighting type raced off first, moving fast towards Nidoking and catching his attention by firing a bunch of Vacuum Waves at the powerful Nidoking. This caught the attention of Nidoking as he then cause more spiked rocks to fly out form underneath the frozen water. Riolu expertly dodged by jumping, running, and soon even learned to ski on the ice to move fast all the while firing his attacks, inching a little closer each time, and avoiding Nidoking's blasts.

All the while, Jigglypuff landed and started rolling and rolling until he then moved in a Roll Out attack and slammed right into the back of the knees of Nidoking. Riolu saw his chance and jumped, charging a large amount of his power and unleashing a powerful aura boosted Vacuum Wave right into Nidoking's jaw.

The blow down below and on top caused the mighty poison and ground type to actually fly some what and skip on the broken ice like a smooth stone on a lake surface. Yet at like the fourth skip, Nidoking shifted his weight and landed with a slide.

He lifted his head back up and growled angrily while giving off a death stare capable of killing someone fifteen times over. He slammed both of his fists on the ground and suddenly rocks shot out and trapped both Jigglypuff and Riolu together into a, sturdy Rock Tomb attack that clamped the two together.

Nidoking didn't hesitate and unleashed a powerful Fire Blast on the two. Despite both Jigglypuff and Riolu being more of the heavy hitter of their group, they were breaking through the Rock Tomb too slowly.

However, help came in as something came in with a glowing white horn and jumped fast right into the Rock Tomb, aiming at one of it's biggest cracks. Both Riolu and Jigglypuff were freed by Prince Nidoran and wasted no time getting out of there by jumping behind the thicker parts of the Rock Tomb attack.

The area exploded and Ash had to shield himself and the Clefairy he was next to to prevent debris from hitting them.

As the shaking stopped and the smoke died down, some of the scorched debris started moving. A rock was raised and thrown by Jigglypuff, revealing him, Riolu, and Prince Nidoran were fine—singed and panting/coughing for air, but they all were alright.

'Hahaha!' Nidoking bellowed a laughter that could potentially be heard from the base of the mountain. 'Was this the best your little rebellion could do, nephew?!'

"Come on guys…!" Ash could only sit and watch as the three remaining fighters slowly got back up.

'After this, my rule shall be complete, and I...' The Nidoking shouted to the skies, 'I will finally be King!'

'You will never be king!' A defiant voice pierced through the skies as everyone looked towards Prince Nidoran and he was… glowing?

It wasn't evolution. Ash picked up his Pokédex to scan Prince Nidoran, the machine had showed that Prince Nidoran knew some basic moves, but among them was the move: Focus Energy, which increased the critical chance of all moves.

Nidoking didn't seem bothered and stepped forward with energy coursing around him. 'And who says I can't be king? You?'

There was an orange light wrapped around Nidoran after the attack was channeled. And with that finished Nidroan stared at his uncle with equal amounts of intensity despite being far weaker. 'Grandfather didn't choose you to be king...'

Those seven words were all it took to make the massive Pokémon to flinch, but Prince Nidoran continued. 'The Coronation Ceremony didn't choose you!' The little poison type stepped forward, making the scarred Nidoking step back form mental pressure. 'And most of all,' He narrowed his eyes. ' _Mother_ didn't choose you.'

Even though they barely knew about Nidoran and his family, every stranger could feel how broken Nidoking was from that last fact. And if they somehow didn't, the scream that came form him, along with the insane burst of power that was enough to lift small rocks would clue everyone not unconscious in. 'AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!'

Nidoran looked to both Riolu and Jigglypuff. 'I need a boost, can you both throw me?!'

The pink and blue Pokémon looked at each other and then nodded back at Prince Nidoran. The prince hopped up light in the air. At that moment, Jigglypuff and Riolu both pushed their limbs into the hind legs of Nidoran. The instant they connected, Riolu poured all his aura into a Vacuum Wave to push Nidoran forward while Jigglypuff mustered the power of his abnormal Strength move to launch him towards his Uncle.

Both Jigglypuff and Riolu grunted with great effort as they shot Nidoran like a pseudo bullet. Nidoking fired a powerful Fire Blast that was so potent, the flames were deep blue instead of red. Instead of being deterred, Nidoran powered up his Horn Attack that was powered up by the Focus Energy.

Nidoran made contact with the massive, blue Fire Blast—and pierced right through it before it's explosion could get him. With that same momentum from both Riolu and Jigglypuff, Nidoran got ready to ram his Horn Attack right to Nidoking!

"Come on!"

'Get him!'

Ash gripped his fist while the Clefairy beside him cheered.

SLASH!

…

…

Nidoking… dodged at the last second by side stepping Nidoran's Horn Attack, and he ended up sliding some space away and tumbling to a stop near Ash and Clefairy.

'Aww man!' Riolu gasped as both he and Jigglypuff felt tired from putting a lot into those attacks.

Nidoking couldn't help but laugh. 'Was that it!? Was that all you could do!?' After all that, the child's final attack missed, how could he not laugh?

Yet prince Nidoran still stood back up, or rather struggled to stand again. Ash and Clefairy ran to him, but for some odd reason they froze for a second after looking at the injured prince.

'It appears you're not as weak as I thought you were, Nephew, but even you should know the folly of going against impossible...' Nidoking trailed off as Prince Nidoran turned around.

In his mouth was the necklace that held the Golden Life Orb.

Nidoking quickly looked towards his neck, but lo and behold, the Life Orb was indeed gone! Instantly, his mind replayed those final seconds of the attack, while Nidoking was moving to avoid the strike, Nidoran tilted his attack in a different area. Did that mean that Nidoran was gunning for that when he knew the attack would miss!?

"Here, let me your Highness." Ash kneeled down and ended up tying the necklace around Prince Nidoran.

When it was done, Prince Nidoran stood with the Life Orb ready.

Nidoking let loose another roar of anger. 'This changes nothing! This is the day you die!'

'Wrong, this is the day I prove to the kingdom what a true King is.' And with that, Nidoran's hind legs started to glow. Ash recalled seeing similar move once in television, Double Kick, a fighting type move.

But the Life Orb around Nidoran started to glow and the small Pokémon winced. It was actually draining his energy yet his Uncle didn't seem to have that problem, but that was not what was at stake here. Powering through the pain, the small creature disappeared in a burst of speed.

On the remnants of ice and stone, Nidoran foot prints appeared followed by cracks on the ground where they were implanted and a gust of wind. Nidoran was using Double Kick on his Hind legs for extra kick of his runs, giving him more speed and more momentum against his uncle.

Nidoking set his hand ablaze, and while it was obvious the power behind it had lessen dramatically, it was by no means powerful and deadly with how it was set aflame to the point where it was double the size of Nidoking himself.

When close enough, Nidoran activated Horn Attack and this time, it glowed a unique purple light than from before.

The two creatures from the same evolutionary line screamed as their attacks, Horn Attack and Fire Punch met and collided, creating a massive explosion!

After a few seconds, something shot out of the smoke and slid on the ground to a stop.

As if the heavens themselves were watching, a speck of moonlight pierced through the vanishing smoke and gave a spotlight on the one who had been shot out.

The light shown down on… Prince Nidoran, battered, looking worse for wear, and horribly exhausted, but still standing tall!

In the epicenter where the two original attack clashed, Nidoking was seen out cold, defeated by his nephew.

Prince Nidoran had won.

"WHOOO!" Ash, Clefairy, Riolu, Jigglypuff, and everyone left still conscious cheered at the winner of the fight.

Prince Nidoran relaxed as he heard the cheers. He looked up to the night sky, where the moon looked as beautiful as it always did then closed his eyes.

The cheering stopped when they all saw a bright light envelope Prince Nidoran. As it died down, Prince Nidoran had Evolved into Prince Nidorino!

With that last action, the newly evolved Prince fell down, completely without energy.

And with that, The Battle For Mt. Moon was over.

* * *

… And Ash soon learned his misery had only just begun.

"Uhhhhhhhh..." Ash tried his best, but it felt like his mind was put in a blender and then used as concrete just so a jackhammer could be used on it. If you didn't get that analogy, it simply meant that Ash was having a really bad headache from the psychic practices Sabrina forced him to do early that morning on top of the now busy Mt. Moon.

"You have seventeen more Rubix Cubes to restart, no breaks." The Psyhic mistress coldly began as twenty rubix cubes flew near her. She folded her arms and looked down on the teen whose brain was hurting so much, he couldn't even stand properly already.

"The pain!" Ash gasped and weakly tried to reach for the exit which was a good… three hundred feet away from him. And then he gasped and collapsed where he was crawling.

Sabrina looked to her Pokémon who actually seemed to pity the kid. Seeing this, the more experienced Psychic user sighed. "Alright, I'll let you go for now. You have ten minutes for a break."

"W-What about Breakfast?"

"Not until you can do twenty five Rubix Cubes at once without breaking a single one." Ash didn't even have the strength to ask why that number kept growing and just groaned into the comforting dirt and dust while Sabrina left.

As Ash laid there on the ground, Riolu, Spreaow, and Jigglypuff walked up to the boy.

'You know, with how hard you're being trained, do you think you can take on the next gym battle yourself?' The fighting type sounded very innocent in his suggestion that would have made anyone else sound sarcastic.

"Mugah..." Oh great, now he couldn't form words. Fantastic.

'You know, friendly friends? I thought everything was super fun with you!' Jigglypuff was lightly dancing with an apple being juggled on his head as he said this. 'I want to join your Exploration Team!'

'Exploration Team?' Riolu and Spearow tilted their heads to the side when repeating that title.

'Yeah! My master used to tell me a group of Pokémon and some humans are called an Exploration Team that go out on adventures to dangerous places and find valuable treasure!'

Riolu put a hand on his chin. 'Well that does describe us except for the trea—wait no. We have a feather from a Legendary so you might be spot on with that.' The fighting type looked to Ash and pointed at the smiling and dancing Jigglypuff. 'Hey Ash, Jigglypuff wants to join our Exploration Team!'

Ash responded with only a weak groan… then lifted a hand with a thumbs up on it.

'Yay!~" Jigglypuff cheered ina sing song tune. 'I get to be with Team Luckless!'

'WHOOO!' Instead of questioning where that name came from like normal people, Riolu and Spearow did their own cheering while Ash could only make a confused groan in response.

'I too wish to join Team Luckless.' Everyone turned the voice while Ash futilely tried to argue against that name.

'Prince Nidorino?' Riolu asked the newly evolved ruler. 'Or is it King Nidorino now?'

'Still Prince I'm afraid. While I am next in line and current ruler, I'm not officially king without a Moon Lake Ceremony.' He looked towards the center of the secret lake which was now empty and filled with a crashed UFO. 'It's a shame that ceremony actually needs a lake.'

He turned around to the look on everyone's—but Ash—face that was like catching children going to the cookie jar before dinner. 'It's alright, peasants, you have done a great service to this future king and for that, you shall not be executed this day.'

"Braaugh?"

'Please, save your adulations,' The proud royal assumed Ash's confused groan as a compliment. There is a possibility that when he evolved he became a teeny-tiny bit egotistic. 'But I as future king, have learned something. I learned more with you four than I ever did trapped in this mountain. If I hope to become even half of the king my father and his father were, I need to know more than just what was in this mountain. It is why… I have decided to join your group to help further my pursuit of being a noble king. You should be grateful.'

Ash made another confused groan noise.

'Splendid! We shall leave at noon! For now, come my new friends, it is time for a victory Banquet!'

'Really!? Do you guys have cheese?'

'I wonder how your meals compare to that of the Spearow Tribe!'

'I get More Perfect Apples, yay!~'

The four Pokémon then left Ash laying on the floor still.

Good news? He no longer was groaning. The bad news? Now he was just sobbing.

* * *

A week after the events of Mt. Moon, over all the way at Pallet Town, Professor Oak heard a knock on the door.

Professor Oak wasn't expecting visitors, so the old man opened the door to see who it was.

He wasn't expecting a large group of Clefairy standing right in front of him. In the very front of him, between him and the group of Clefairy was a leading Clefable and a actual flying UFO floating above his house/lab.

'Hi!' The Clefable spoke to him in perfect English. 'Are you Professor Oak?'

His mind was so flabbergasted by these series of events that came so quickly out of nowhere, his subconscious just acted on manners and the old man simply nodded his head.

'Excellent! We will be staying here and setting up base until our spaceship is fully functional! Thank you, Professor Oak of Pallet Town!'

Out of all the things she just said, one in particular finally made the stunned professor move and speak again. "What!? What do you mean, staying here and setting base?!"

The Clefable tilted her head… or body… or whatever! You get the idea! 'Oh? Did Supreme War General Ash Ketchum not tell you about us?'

Supreme War General… "Ash!?" Professor cried out at the same time his mind did. Now that he thought back, the boy did make a call and say he was sending some Pokemon over in a while, but **this** was not what he had in mind! "W-W-Well—he did—"

'Sensational! Now, if you find yourself pressed to the ground or floating aimlessly in the air in any later days, that would be us seeing how we can weaponize the gravity of this planet. Thank you for letting us stay here!' And with that, all the pink creatures were beamed up into the ship and the flying saucer flew over his lab and into his research center, as it did, the utterly baffled old man could hear the alerted cries of the other Pokémon in his lab start to panic.

Professor Oak could only put a hand on his head. "What just… Ash! I need to call Ash!"

Running faster than he ever did in his prime, Professor Oak raced for the phone.

* * *

+Author Notes+

Congratulations, Ash Ketchum, you have not only become part of a second Team called Team Luckless, but you have impressed the alien Clefairy and their queen and have been appointed their Supreme War General! Truly, your future is as bright as a nuke going off!

For those that still didn't catch it, Jigglypuff is heavily based off The Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of The Sky/Time/Darkness Wigglytuff. If you haven't played that Pokémon spin off you are missing out more than humanly possible. He's an interesting character and the thought of giving a Mystery Dungeon character to Ash sounded like a new and fresh idea.

I really do hope your all enjoying the story. As you all can tell, this is pretty different from most Trainer Stories in general since there's less focus on training to be the best and strongest in the league, and more of exploring how weird and amazing this world of Pokémon can be! Seriously, it's fun to write!

Any way, I do hope you support this story by favorites, reviews, and follows. I hope this story finds you well!

And look out for the next chapter! We head to Cerulean City and meet someone you remember but is a little different in this story. (The Easy answer would be Misty, wouldn't it? But I'll keep you all guessing if it's her or someone else completely.)

Bye!


	9. EP 9: Who's that character!

A Pokémon Center, a staple of the world of Pokémon and seen in nearly every single town possible. As such, seeing a building is the same as breathing air. One can just acknowledge it and sometimes take it for granted.

"FINALLY!" Ash Ketchum was currently not one who would take a place for granted, especially with how as soon as he entered, he fell to his knees and threw his hands into the air as if finding an oasis in the middle of a barren dessert.

Sabrina walked in after Ash did and continued past him, ignoring how many around the center were now staring at the boy who was now gasping for breath. "I'm going to order a room, return here by six." She said as she didn't miss a beat to walk right up to Nurse Joy. Even someone as strict as her would like to rest from the fiasco at Mt. Moon.

The young teen fell into the floor on his back from exhaustion from both travel and punishment from Sabrina. He then did an impressive combination of whining and groaning, a 'whoaning' if one made a habit of combining words. "I feel like I'm going to die..." On the other hand, he was able to better use telekinesis than before, so this wasn't all for naught—not that Ash Ketchum was feeling energized enough to actually be happy, mind you.

While he was laying there on the tilted floor, trying to push away thoughts of how Sabrina would still continue his hellish training, another thought came to his mind: actual Pokémon training.

"I should probably see where Jigglypuff and Nidorino fit in a proper battle.." The boy trailed off and thought back to the day he met Entei and what had happened afterward.

It wasn't the fact he met Entei or the other event of him fighting with Gary as he sometimes did over his life, it was when Sabrina easily questioned why he wanted to be a Pokémon Master. The teen could only say he wanted to be one that it was cool to be one. But… was that good enough? The reason for being one was shallow, even though all goals are in some way selfish. But still, he couldn't help but think about it more.

The raven haired teen's stare towards the roof was interrupted when Riolu tilted his head down in Ash's line of sight. 'Ash? Why are you just looking at the ceiling from there? Is there something about it?'

Maybe he shouldn't be thinking of such a thought provoking question while he was on a floor everybody walked on.

* * *

Ash was so focused about his existential crisis that he hadn't realized he was in a booth in the cafeteria and eating breakfast with all his new Pokémon. The young teen must have been out of it he didn't realize he let the others out and got them all food… and did he also miss Jigglypuff hoarding a lot of apple pies?

Also, why was Prince Nidorino staring right into that mirror not to far from them?

'He is so beautiful'. To those who could understand him, Nidorion gave a rather eerie vibe when standing on his hind legs to lean closer in order to stare into the eyes of his own reflection. 'How beautiful...' He breathed closer to the reflective surface that it started to fog up, not that the poison type seemed to notice.

'Wow that looks traumatizing! Yay!' Jigglypuff cried out happily in a sing song tune before devouring more pies.

All things considered, it was a pretty calm morning despite those little new quirks of his Pokémon.

" _And we're back with Channel 96 News!_ " One of the many large screen televisions played out in the cafeteria. " _Today we_ _have_ _a very special_ _guest_ _: Alesandro_ _Bemus_ _,_ _the Ambassador to one of the most technically advance regions of the planet, the_ _Miko_ _nik_ _Region._ " The spokesman turned towards the rather handsome man wearing a very specialized red suit with runic patters across his cuffs. " _Thank you for saying yes to our interview._ "

" _It's no problem at all, Simon. You've all been very kind since my arrival here._ " Ash couldn't tell because of the TV, but this man had very vivid red hair, complexion that could put high end models to shame, and eyes that almost looked like emeralds. The man looked like straight out of those afternoon soap operas from Hoenn that his mom liked to watch to stare at the men a lot.

" _So Mr. Bemus, for our audience at home, what can you tell us about your home region?_ "

" _I can imagine that many people don't know much about it. Our region was closed off to the world until around a decade ago._ _It shares a similarity with both Sinnoh and Hoenn in that Legendary Beasts have helped shaped our land. However, unlike the previously mentioned, our ancestors seemed to have lost information at which Legendaries helped shape the Mikonik Region._ _The reason why most of our history was lost was because for whatever reason, Mikonik seemed to be the victim of a very, very powerful battle between_ _multiple_ _legendaries._ _The proof is in our very homes where a mountain with temperatures near zero is a good_ _ten_ _day walking distance from an active volcano,_ _there are many geological impossibilities_ _and paradoxes_ _that exist in our region!_ _But thankfully, we do have_ _..._ "

Ash looked down when he heard the sound of metal hitting ceramic. It seemed like his spoon just hit an empty bowl with milk. "Huh. Out of food." He stood back up. "I'll be right back guys." Ash told his party before he left.

All four creatures looked up to the screen their trainer was looking at.

'… So… does anyone know what they're saying?' Riolu asked before looking around.

'Wasn't it your job to be a translator or something?' Spearow looked towards the fighting type.

'I translate people, not machines!' Riolu pointed to the square on the wall that played sounds and imagery. 'Can't someone cut me some slack on not understanding what these guys are saying if they're not in person?'

Meanwhile, the television continued on.

" _That is very amazing! But now, Mr. Bemus, if I may ask, why did you decide to visit Kanto?_ "

It was such a shame that Sabrina was sleeping at the time. If she was watching that along with Ash and his Pokémon, she would have noticed that for the briefest of seconds, the ambassador's smile suddenly looked more fake than usual, even by the standards of normal politicians.

* * *

'So aren't we going to the gym, Ash?' Riolu began as the two were now walking in Cerulean City.

Ash knew about the water gym in this place. He had just… "I don't actually know."

'What's wrong, Ash?' Riolu tilted his head while sitting on the teen's shoulder. It was obvious something was bothering his friend. 'Are you still upset about Sabrina's training?'

"No, not that. I just… Riolu, what do you want to do?" The raven haired boy turned to his blue partner.

'I like being with you, Ash!' The emanation Pokémon answered easily.

"Well thank you, but I mean, what would you like to do with it? What are your goals?"

The fighting type tilted his head and thought about it for a few seconds. 'I just wanna be with you.'

Ash pressed on. "Is that it? Is there anything more you wanna do? Or have a really good reason for it?"

'No,' Riolu answered fast before pausing to think about it more. 'No, not really. I like what we have now. It's super fun and there's so many cool things we get to do!'

"So, you like everything right now, because it's fun?"

'Yep!' Riolu confirmed with a smile before pointing. 'You also have fun too!'

Ash paused at the last sentence. "What?"

'Whenever we battle, I can feel what you feel! You have this… warm and bright energy whenever we battle! It's like when you're most happy, doing exciting battles!'

Ash thought about that for a second. He did have a lot of fun during his first badge, and now that he thought back…

He remembered the very first Pokémon Battle he ever saw. His mind could play it over and over again: a Rhyorn against a Dragonair. The two creatures and their trainers made amazingly powerful and epic moves that blew away the boy's expectations with each passing second. He remembered that he wanted to be a Pokémon Master because he felt excited by a battle—by the very Pokemon themselves and the trainers giving their all and beyond. He thought that being the best would be fun!

The memory along with the strong feelings returned to Ash. Not only that, all his memories so far came back, some were more dangerous than others, but each and every moment of meeting Spearow, Jigglypuff, Nidorino, and even the three years with Professor Oak, they were all so that he could become the very best, like no one ever was!

And for the first time in a while, Ash felt relieved. "Thanks, Riolu. You are right, I do have a lot of fun in battles." Ash found himself petting the head of his partner, feeling sheepish for dwelling so long on something so simply answered that caused him much grief.

"Right!" He threw his fist into the air. "Let's go challenge the Cerulean Gym! We're going to beat them and win our second badge!"

'Yeah!'

* * *

Ash was back to feeling sad as he walked down the park of Cerulean City once more.

This time, the reason why the boy was drained was because he didn't even realize that the Cerulean City Gym also doubled as a water show/aquarium. And it just so happened that today the gym was booked filled with shows and were currently taking no challengers.

Of course his luck would mean that he is unable to go to a gym battle when he was rip and raring to go.

"Man this sucks, I guess this means we can just train the others and see how well they can do in an official battle." Ash in his mind went back towards the fact he was already behind Gary by two badges already. At the rate he was going, he might not even be able to get eight badges in time for the league, let alone take the ten badge challenge for Spark.

While mulling over how he could possibly catch up with everyone, the young teen didn't notice Riolu trying to warn him about…

'Incoming water attack!' Riolu screamed before Ash and he were both literally swept away form a tidal wave that came almost form nowhere and made the two quite drenched.

"Oh my gosh! I am so sorry!" As the two got back up, they heard a girl's voice and turned to where it came from.

To anyone else, she was very pretty with straight, golden colored hair that reached down before reaching the top of her stomach, vivd emerald colored eyes, and a nice complexion. She wore a pink wool beret over her head and she wore a long sleeve, white shirt she wears under a stylish, short light brown vest that by itself would have shown off her upper hips/belly button and looks more like a short tank top than an actual vest. She also styled a red skirt with one brown stripe on the side and was wearing long black stockings and wears black rubber shoes with pink shoe laces.

Of course, all of those fashion details translated in Ash's brain as… _that is a girl_.

The girl in question eventually met up with Ash and Riolu, holding a Togepi in her arms. "I am so sorry! I was just practicing some moves and then one of the Metronome moves ended up being Surf and—"

"Hey, no need to worry. I guess I'll have to get used to water now since I am facing the Cerulean City gym later." Ash easily said before checking his bag pack for anything that might have been doused..

The girl bowed her head. "I am so terribly sorry."

Ash thought she was a being a bit overdramatic about this, but then again his mother told him people have their own weirdness to them. "Like I said, no need to worry. Your were just practicing your moves right? I do things like that too! So are you a trainer?"

The girl did lift her head at that. "Y-Yes! I'm traveling with a friend." She didn't say much more about that.

"Oh that's cool! I'm on my own journey too! Are you training your Pokémon for the gym too?" Ash looked at the happy looking Togepi who was waving at him. It didn't look all that tough though, but then again neither did some of his Pokémon.

"Oh no, I was having Ki, my Togepi, here practice some..." The blonde girl seemed to slow down in her speech and couldn't help but seem sad at what she said next. "Some contest moves. I'm a huge fan of contests."

Ash has heard of that before. Mary and Emily watched some of those on Professor Oak's TV. They were totally not his thing, but the idea of combining some moves together was pretty interesting to Ash, and now that he recalled, he might actually want to try something like that for training in the future.

However, he did recall something else. "Wait a second. Kanto does have contests, but they're not annual like the Pokémon League. I think they have it once every three years, and the last year our Grand Festival ended." He clearly recalled him and his friends watching it last year and how it was special because it wasn't done often.

The blonde girl gave a smile that looked more sad than happy. "Yeah, I know. I missed my chance, but I would like to compete one day."

Ash didn't really think she needed to be sad over something so simple, like he had done just a while ago. "I know I was pretty devastated when I was nine and they bumped up the age for trainers a week before my tenth birthday. But you don't have to wait that long. I'm sure going to Sinnoh or Hoenn would be much easier than waiting here in Kanto."

"That… that's a good idea." Riolu tilted his head after hearing that from the girl. He didn't know why, but he had a feeling from his powers that she wouldn't actually do what Ash just suggested, or more like she couldn't. "Thank you for that…?"

Ash seemed to recognize her asking for his name and he said, "My name is Ash Ketchum. And this buddy here is Riolu!" The fighting type waved his hand.

"Oh my name is... S-Sola Lunarizel! Yes! Sola Lunarizel, but just call me Sola." If anyone sharp was around, they would notice that odd pause before Sola introduced herself.

But if their meeting with Sabrina was any indication, Ash and Riolu were far too trusting. "Nice to meet you, Sola. That is an exotic name."

"Oh uh right. Yes, it's exotic." Sola's eyes shifted around. "I'm from the A-Alamia region."

"That's pretty cool! What's it like there?"

"Uhhhhhhh," Sola stammered as she hugged her Togepi tighter.

"There you are!"

The two turned towards the third voice coming towards them and followed where it came from. "Emily!?" Both Ash and Sola shouted before looking at each other in surprise.

"Ash? What are you doing here?" Just like Mary, Emily has also changed in the past three years. She had grown with a style that just caught people's attention. She was now sporting a leather jacket, ripped jeans, long boots, and had a black T-shirt with an ultra ball symbol that melded perfectly with her black shirt that was located above the left side of her hip. Her hair grew longer too, but if Ash recalled, Mary wanted the two of them to both have longer hair to style with and she couldn't really say no to her. She was still wearing a bandana and had this even louder, tough-girl look.

"Sola, what are you doing?" Emily turned to Sola, "You didn't get hurt, did you? Ash is always known for getting people in trouble that's really annoying." And contrary to her tough girl looks, she was already going to 'Mother Hen' mode when asking questions about Sola's safety and wellbeing. Emily was strange to Ash. Sometimes she would be one of the toughest people he knew, and that was including all the guys he met so far, but then there were times where she acted like his mom when it was just the four of them. It was weird to see the girl sometimes care when it betrayed her tough girl lok she tries so hard to maintain.

"Emily, I'm… there's no need to worry." She copied what Ash had told her and gave a small smile.

"Hey, Emily, good to see you! I've already seen Mary and Gary." It was at that moment Ash finally realized those two have nearly the same nicknames after nearly a decade of being their friend. "What are you doing here?"

Emily relaxed and put a hand on her hip. "Sola and I were just getting ready to take the train station to Diagon City. It was going to be later in the night, but I got separated from her." Sola then laughed nervously at the implication before silently apologizing.

"You're heading to Diagon City, already?" Ash perked up and the mention of that City North of where they currently were.

"Yeah, I already beat the Cerulean City Gym, but the only train ride available was late at night. What about you?"

"I'm..." Ash suddenly recalled his meeting with Gary and their talk about badges and how behind he really was. "I haven't challenged the gym yet."

"Let me guess? Are they still doing those dang shows?" Ash raised his brow before both he and Riolu noticed this thick, menacing aura around the girl.

Sola leaned in closer and whispered, "All the time she was taking their challenge, the Sensational Sisters wanted Emily to dress more girly like, only their youngest seemed to defend her. She was really ticked off about it."

"Hey! Sola, don't just go saying something like that!" Emily snapped before she sighed she then looked over to Ash's Riolu. "So, you were able to get a Pokémon after all."

"Yeah, I got him after you guys left," Ash paused for a second. "That means you've got Bulbasaur right? Gary had Squirtle and Mary was with Charmander."

Emily nodded, "He's actually an Ivysaur now, but yeah."

It was at that moment that Ash realized something. He still needed to start training for his gym battle. "Hey, Emily! Let's have a battle! I have two new Pokémon and I wanna see how they fair in a trainer battle!"

A confident smile appeared on Emily's face. "Oh? Alright, I've been meaning to get more training for some of my Pokémon too. I accept!"

"Great!" Ash cried out before Riolu pointed to how wet the two of them were. "Errr, could you give us a moment to dry off?"

* * *

Sola cleared her throat as both Mary and Ash stood on opposite ends of the battlefield they were on. "I'll be the referee for this battle along with Ki here," The blonde looked down to the Togepi in her arms.

'I can't wait to watch this!' The voice of the Togepi was very young, Ash noted. And he then recalled that only he and his Pokémon understood each other. It seemed like the others couldn't understand what their partners were saying as of right now.

"Sure thing." Emily then looked over to Ash and put a hand on her hip with a proud smile. "We actually haven't had a proper battle, even during those practice ones at the ranch."

"Oh right, I mostly battled Gary." The trainer's memories brought up the few battles he had with Emily. Most of them were also losses, and few as they were, Emily tended to be a much harder person to beat than Gary.

So of course Ash would only get more excited battling against her! How could he forget about this experience? The anticipation, the tension before the release of adrenaline! Pokémon were fun!

However, Sola raised her hand to distract the two friends. "Oh wait, is there a limit?" The girl with a beret asked patiently.

Ash thought about it for a second, "How about... two on two, single battle?" Riolu and Spearow had their bout earlier before, figuring out where his newcomers stood in an official battle would probably do him better.

Emily simply nodded. "I'm good with that."

The raven haired boy grabbed a Poké Ball and threw it into the field, "Go, Jigglypuff!"

'Hello, Friendly friends!' The pink puff ball made little twirl as he appeared.

Then everyone turned to Sola, who had just squealed and now looked as flushed as Emily's hair when everyone looked at her. "S-Sorry, it's cute."

Emily shrugged her shoulders, obviously not caring much about the appearance of certain Pokémon, then grabbed a Great Ball from the inside of her jacket and threw it out into the field, "Aero, own the field!" The great ball popped up and a Staravia took to the skies before looking down on the pink puff ball.

Ash was in awe as he took out his Poké to look at the unfamiliar creature. After a brief summary, of the creature was revealed, Ash raised his brow. "Wait a second, Staravia aren't located in Kanto."

"I found Aero while he was migrating." Emily then looked over towards her travel companion. "Now then, Sola?"

"Right! Let the battle begin!"

"Use Quick Attack!" Not even before Sola could finish her announcement, Emily was already on the offensive and Aero blasted off and rammed right through Jigglypuff and sent him bouncing like a rubber ball.

Ash forgot Emily was the most aggressive out of all of them. Her strategy was basically just, 'Take hits well, and hit back even harder.' And it was surprisingly effective.

Jigglypuff seemed not to bothered by the hit and seemed to pout looking up to the flying bird. Ash closed his ears when the normal and fairy type bloated a bit and unleashed a concentrated Hyper Voice towards the flying type.

With an order from Emily, Aero flew with more speed to avoid the attack. Ash knew that was coming and told Jigglypuff to, "Hit the ground!"

For a second, Emily and Sola thought the phrase meant to duck under the attack. They weren't expecting Jigglypuff to punch the ground, and hit it without enough force to actually shake the ground and caused a sizable chunk of earth to lift up and get in the path of Aero's attack.

The Staravia squawked before the boulder was lifted and in that moment, Jigglypuff pushed on the rather big rock, almost hitting Aero and crashing some distance away from the battle field.

Sola was watching with her mouth gaping open while her Togepi actually had a look akin to stars in their eyes.

To her credit, Emily looked on briefly surprised before shaking her head and ordering Aero to get out close range once more.

Ash watched the battle continue. He had to admit, he was usually the one with a speedy Pokémon against a more powerful opponent, but it seemed like the situation was reversed somewhat. Now he had the slower, more powerful ally while his opponent was fast and speedy.

An idea came to the boy's mind. "Jigglypuff, attack the ground!" He gave his first order while giving a secondary order through his link that further explained his plan.

Jigglypuff huffed and attacked the ground with several more Strength attacks, creating rock chunks that scattered the field.

Emily didn't like where this was going, especially when Ash ordered his pink puff ball to grab the largest boulder and throw it into the air at her flying type.

Aero dodged the boulder thrown easily, but the moment he looked back, he and everyone else but Ash, noticed that Jigglypuff was gone. Emily actually looked to Ash and noticed he was looking… up?

"Now Jigglypuff! Use Hyper Voice!"

"Aero, Double Team!"

Emily shouted her command even though she didn't know what was about to happen, and it was a good thing she did. Apparently, Jigglypuff may have thrown the boulder, but the pink puffball never let go of it during the throw! As the boulder spun over in the air, Jigglypuff was seen on the other side already huffing up and unleashing a powerful Hyper Voice that hit Aero and all his doubles. But thanks to Emily's quick thinking, Aero was hit at the edge of the attack and not in the center. Jigglypuff floated off while the boulder started to fall back down into the ground and Emily looked over to Ash with a smile on her face.

"You always did get stuck with all the tricky Pokémon, Ash." The red head began before pointing. "But Aero is faster in the air than Jigglypuff! Quick Attack, Aero!"

Ash tried to counter by telling Jigglypuff to fire another Hyper Voice; however, something else happened.

Now see, Aero was very fast and went in with the attempt to hit Jigglypuff before he could attack and it sorta worked. The Staravia was fast enough to beat the attack, just not fast enough to hit Jigglypuff before he could open his mouth.

Everyone involve could only stare in shock as Jigglypuff accidentally swallowed Staravia whole when his beak should have hit his body and instead went into the inhaling mouth.

"Aero!" "Jigglypuff!?" Both Ash and Emily screamed as the two actually were caught in Aero's momentum and both ended up crashing fast into the ground.

As the dust settled, it seemed like Jigglypuff was knocked out cold, and slowly out of his mouth, Aero pushed his way out and was covered in saliva.

"U-Uh the winner is Emily!?" Sola had her brow raised up in confusion the entire time as she declared such an unusual KO.

Aero squawked indignantly when he realized he was covered in another Pokémon's spit.

"Well, I wanted to win… just not like that." Emily began as she picked up her returned the flying type after promising it a shower.

"That was a fun battle!" Ash found himself laughing and enjoying this battle a lot.

"Glad to see your still yourself, Ash, but there's no way you're going to win the next round." Emily began.

However, Ash's eyes sharpened. "That's where you're wrong Emily! This time, I'm going to win!"

After his proclamation, he then brought out Prince Nidorino. 'Is this the battling I've heard so much about? Well then it's time to grace this with a presence such as myself!' The poison type made a pose as if ready for a fight.

Emily smiled and to Ash's notice, she pulled out a Great Ball and threw out her next partner. Ash wasn't expecting a Dratini to appear.

Ash knew that dragon types were rare and powerful. But he wasn't expecting any one of his friends to get one of them so soon. "Wow, do you all have rare Pokémon?"

"That's a story for another day," She turned towards Sola and the blonde instantly realized she was supposed to call the next battle.

"B-Begin!" The blonde stammered out.

At her call, the battle once again begun. Emily ordered her Dratini to use Thunder Wave. Ash was about to call a dodge but noticed Nidorion firmly standing his ground. In a split instant, Ash decided to trust his new friend as he took the attack head on.

'Wha?' The Dratini looked in shock. 'Why didn't you try and dodge that?'

Even though electricity was coursing through his body, the poison type still kept up his smirk. 'It's only fair to give my opponent an even playing field against me!' The poison type glanced briefly over to Ash. 'Supreme War General, Ash! You have my permission to issue commands!'

The raven haired boy then recalled the prince's move list. When he evolved, he learned a brand new move that wasn't used in the battle with Nidorino.

"Use, Rock Tomb!" Ash cried out by punching the air.

There was a brilliant glow coming from the Life Orb of Prince Nidorino and even the ground started trembling, rocks shot out of the ground and trapped Dratini in a formation of rocks. The Prince Wasn't done as he then stomped his right leg and four moure boulders shot out, and sped right into the tomb with enough speed to cause a shockwave and an explosion of dust on impact.

"Wow!" Ash, and understandably others, were in awe at the display of power. "Prince Nidorino that was..."

It was then he trailed off, when he noticed Nidorino out cold on the ground with his eyes spinning. 'H-how splen...did..'

'You know,' Riolu began, making Ash look down at him scratching his head. 'I was wondering why I suddenly felt Nidorino's aura diminished greatly. I think he poured too much of his energy into that attack.'

"Wait, so the Life Orb translates the power of each attack by how much energy is put into it?" Ash put a hand on his chin. It was a good thing he found that out now than in an official gym battle. He would have to talk with Prince Nidorino to be more conservative with the different Life Orb after this.

"Okay," Ash and Riolu looked over towards Emily who was understandably still baffled. "What the heck was that?! How the heck did you do that!?"

Ash rubbed his head. "Uhh, I got my hands on a Life Orb and I'm still trying to figure out how it works? But I guess this means you win since Aero is still up."

"H-Huh?!" Sola gasped ins surprise and raised a hand. "T-The winner is Emily!"

Emily sighed and put a hand on her head. "Dang it, Ash, even a battle is weird when it comes to you."

Ash recalled Nidorino into his Poké Ball while using his other hand to scratch his cheek lightly. "How is this weird?"

"Your Nidorino just knocked out Tia and himself in one move without using Explosion or Self Destruct!" The girl referenced that her Dratini also had a nickname.

"I think that's a future strategy rather than something weird."

Emily groaned while Sola ended up laughing.

When done with her small laughter, the blonde turned towards Ash. "You really do have some lively Pokémon, Ash. They're also surprisingly powerful."

"They are pretty lively. But I'm really glad to have met them." Ash looked down back at Riolu who was smiling and looking back up at him.

He did end up looking back at Emily. "That was a great battle though! But I'm serious on winning next time!"

"Ha, you wish!" The red head proudly said and folded her arms. However, she did admit in the back of her mind that Ash was certainly better with his own Pokémon now.

"So umm..." Everyone turned to Sola. "What are we going to do about the field?"

As soon as that question came out, everyone realized the entire battlefield was filled with chunks of boulders and uneven and cracked land.

Ash was the one who broke the silence even though he probably shouldn't have. "You know, I don't actually know..."

* * *

As Emily and Sola got into the train later that night; the red headed girl couldn't help but notice the huge smile plastered on her friend's face that had been there almost the entire day. "You obviously had fun."

"Your friend is certainly unexpected! His Pokémon are also so kind." Sola admitted as the two went into a private room in the train. "You never said anything about your friends."

As soon as the two sat down, Emily closed the blinds and checked the seats and the area around them. As she did, Sola's smile died down.

When Emily was done, she sat on the opposite side. "I didn't have time to talk about my friends since our meeting was rushed, Princess Salvia."

"P-Please don't call me that." Sola—or Princess Salvia tugged on her blonde hair, revealing it to be a wig hiding blue hair and soon put Ki, her Togepi, down to remove her contacts, revealing eyes as blue as the dark part of the ocean. "It's Sola Lunarizel as long as I'm traveling. Let us please not talk about the circumstances that brought us both together—not that this isn't fun—it's just... "

Emily sighed. "I'm sorry, Princess. I really am. I wish my uncle didn't spring this on me, but we need to keep you safe from the Mikonik Region."

"I know. I-I just wish…" The blue haired princess looked up. "I wish my journey would have been taken on much kinder circumstances."

And with that, the announcement on the train alerted all inside that they were about to move and their next stop was Daigon City.

* * *

+Author Notes+

This was the character I was talking about last chapter. Meet Princess Salvia! Some of you super savvy Pokemon Fans will know that this girl is basically a doppelganger of Dawn from the Diamond and Pearl Series: basically think of her as the Richie to Dawn's Ash(Well that sounds ship like). But I'm keeping one thing a little secret about this.

There's more to this 'new' character than meets the eye. And it's not just her, this story has plans on how weird I can make it but still make it cohesive in the future.

But all of that will pay off in the long run, for now, we can all look forward towards the Cerulean City Gym battle next!

Will Ash battle Misty? Or is something different this time just like in the battle for Pewter City's gym badge?

Thank you all for the support this story is getting! I'm surprised you all like this story! I can't thank you all enough for it.


	10. Ep 10: Pool Battle!

Sweat poured down form her forehead. Out of the craziest days of her life, Sabrina Bellelba never expected to face such an opponent that had defeated her so utterly. She feared for her life, she feared for her sanity, she—

"Under the water!~ Under the water!~ Down where it's denser, and it is darker, take it from me!~"

"Man this singing, robotic Corphfish is a really good singer." Ash and his Riolu innocently looked at the robotic red creature singing that _ear-bleeding_ song on loop in front of the Cerulean City Gym.

Finding out she was actually grinding her teeth by the annoying song, and seeing Ash seemed to have no urgency in getting away from it, Sabrina used her powers to unplug one of the wires inside the machine and cause it to stop. It took her a lot of self control to not destroy the thing outright.

After the singing Corphfish dropped, the two in front of the older psychic looked at her. "Did you just use your powers just now?" Ash asked.

Sabrina didn't even answer them and just started walking towards the door. "Let's go inside." Of all the times for the boy to be questioning her, it had to be at that moment—wait a second. He sensed her powers? She thought she was being subtle as possible, even some other psychics would have barely felt her pow… was the boy more sensitive to powers because of his Riolu's aura? Come to think of it, she never had heard of the two powers intermingling so much as these two have.

Bah, she could think about that later, right now, she just wanted this to be over with.

The Cerulean City Gym was far more extravagant than the other Gyms Ash has been so far. Granted, he only has been in four tops, and three of those looked more oriented in research than a proper gym stadium, but it still looked pretty showy with the decorated walls, spot lights, and etc.

"Ahh?" Sabrina, Ash, and Riolu looked over to see a tall, gorgeous blonde woman looking at them with a hangar of a costume held up in one hand. She looked over to the other side of the stadium and cupped her remaining hand, "Lilly! Violet! Did either of you leave the door open?!"

Across the other side, two other stunning, beautiful women stood up and looked back towards the blonde. "No, I think Misty was in a hurry to leave though!" One of them, with blue hair, shouted out a response.

"What!? Why did Misty leave?"

"She said something about finding a Gyarados, Daisy!" The pink haired beauty screamed back.

The one named Daisy sighed before looking back at the two with a smile that seemed insincere. "We're sorry, we're closed right now. Our next show is tomorrow starting at 11:45 AM—"

"Wait, but I'm here for a Gym Battle!" Ash quickly stated. The second those last two words exited his mouth, Daisy and the other two girls blanched.

Sabrina sighed and put a hand on Ash's shoulder. "Ash, these girls may do battling, but it's their youngest sibling that is the proper Gym Leader of this gym."

"Their youngest sibling?" Ash repeated while Sabrina nodded. However, Daisy seemed to huff at the accusation.

"Hey! We're not as bad as three years ago! We're actually decent Gym Leaders even without Misty!" The blonde declared before looking over towards the raven haired teen. "You! You wanted to battle right? We'll battle you!"

While Ash was caught off guard, Sabrina on the other hand, smirked. "Oh this should be good."

The aspiring Pokemon master had this feeling, with how the two older women kept glaring at each other more than him, that he got into something that was more than just a battle for a badge.

* * *

The raven haired teen had this feeling that was just so complicated. On one hand, he was getting his gym battle he wanted, but he didn't think it would be a gym battle he wanted, not with how three of the older sisters were all looking bitterly towards him from across a large pool of water with scattered floating platforms.

"This battle will be a three on three triple battle!" Diasy from the opposite end screamed out loud.

"A triple battle?" Ash repeated to himself as he tried to recall what that type of battle meant. "You mean, three on three in one battle?"

"Yes!" The blue haired sister, Violet, cried out. "This gym challenges a trainer's ability to manage multiple happenings at once!"

"So you have to defeat all of us at once!" Lilly, the pink haired sister before all three of them threw out a Pokemon: a Tentacool, a Seaking, and a Seadra that all cried out in the air before diving into the waters below in a rather spectacular manner.

Ash thought for a second before picking his three for this fight. "Riolu, Spearow, Nidorino!" He cried out as the fighting type jumped and landed on one of the platforms, Prince Nidorino landed on one nearby, and Spearow was above the two.

"Ready? And begin!" The three sisters cried out before the battle was started.

Right off the bat, the water from several areas started to bubble, Ash's eyes widened before ordering everyone to scatter before they were hit by high pressurized water blasts form striking them. However, the attacks kept coming, forcing the trainer to command the defense.

Sabrina sighed. In her mind, she knew that a three on one seemed unfair, but at the same time, a strong trainer could easily overcome such a disadvantage. However…

Ash ordered Riolu to scan where his enemies where and fire back. The fighting type briefly scanned the area while dodging. When he found the nearest target, he shot a Vacuum Wave into the water. However, the attack slowed down greatly after entering into the water; it slowed down even more to the point of vanishing the more it traveled, not even reaching half way to it's intended target.

Sabrina was wary of that very thing. Ash's Pokemon were all at a disadvantage just by the very water of the battlefield. It served as the ultimate defense in this scenario: it allowed high mobility for water Pokemon while the deeper pressures weakened attacks greatly coming above the water levels. Ash would not only have to get past three trainers commanding one Pokemon each against his managing of three, but he would have to blow past the great home field advantage of his opponents.

It was then that the sisters pressed their attack, instead of shooting water blasts like before, this time they started using their attacks to flip over the platforms. Ash again cried out for specifically Riolu and Nidorino to keep moving, but that was all they could do. Spearow was on standby, not really able to do anything but watch, while the Sensational sister's water types were decimating the battle.

Ash himself didn't know what to do. However, it seemed like his own Pokemon had something coming up.

Nidorino posed dramatically after landing on a platform while most of their opponents were focused on Riolu. 'I will take care of this nuisance!'

'What are you going to do?' Riolu cried out before jumping just before his platform was flipped over again.

'Hmph!' Nidorino scoffed. 'Watch and be amazed!'

Nidorino started gaining speed, jumping form platform to platform, the opponents saw tried to stop him, but he was too nimble, to quick!

Then he jumped into the water! Then he… then he…

…

Why was he just slowly drowning where he jumped into?

Ash, feeling a little worried, made the link to his poison type. (Uhh, your majesty? You do know how to swim right?)

(What is this 'swimming' you speak off?)

Sabrina facepalmed, hearing the link between her pseudo student and his Pokemon.

Ash on the other hand, was a little more hopeful. (So what is your plan, your highness?)

(Ah yes! Behold, my subjects—AAAHH!? What is this strange taste in the water?! I can also feel a tingly sensation in my eyes!?)

(… You mean… chlorine?) Ash hesitantly asked as he probably imagined that pool water was different from freshwater Nidorino was used to.

Sabrina face palmed again.

(You're just going to let water burn your eyes?! Pull yourself together, princey! That water is challenging your honor! Defeat it!)

(Gasp! You are right flying man-voiced woman! How dare this fake water attempt to dishonor me!) Speraow's words have obviously touched Prince Nidorino as he stayed strong and his Life Orb started glowing.

Ash had a second for his face to give his best impression of an 'oh snap!' moment before a giant rock shot out of the ground, and lifted water and some platforms out of the pool/arena due to space, it cuased the trainers of the battle some grief.

'Ha! Take that water! You are inferior to Prince Nidorino's water! Mwahahahaha!' Nidorino declared as if he was fighting the water and not the Pokemon in it. He was also panting for air since a massive rock in the middle of the arena did take a sizable chunk of his stamina.

Ash smiled as he realized that this was finally what they needed to go on the offensive. He ordered Riolu and Spearow to converge on the miniature isle that Nidorino made since it had much higher ground than the platforms.

Ash was tempted to simply command Nidorino to continue making summoning large piles of rocks, but he recalled that while Prince Nidorino had powerful attacks, they drained a lot of his energy. He didn't want to risk exhausting the poison type so much.

"Hey!" The raven haired teen looked towards the three older women. "We need this place for our shows! We can't have that rock in the arena!"

As soon as she said this, all three of the sisters Pokemon jumped into the air with energy gathering from each one of them.

"Spearow, Riolu, now!" Ash swung his arm as the Spearow and Riolu blasted off from where they were with speed from Agility and Quick Attack respectively. The flying type rammed into the Seadra and brought it higher into the air while Riolu speed past the Tentacool, grabbing one of it's tentacles and yanking it back so the fighting type could slam him down into one of the platforms.

However, this left the Seaking to charge up a Megahorn attack towards the mountain. Prince Nidorino saw this and ignited his own Horn Attack and met with Seaking head on. Yet, when the two attacks made contact, neither user backed down from the impact, and were now clashing and locked with each other.

Meanwhile, while Riolu slammed Tentacool into the platform he noticed that his opponent still held focus and quickly used his other tentacle to Constrict Riolu whole.

'Hey! How come you didn't look hurt from that?!' Riolu cried out as he tried to get out of the Tentacool trapping him.

'Listen, monn, I be tellin ya that I have no bones or muscles in da first place! Me body be made out of something like jelly, mon.' Riolu actually stopped struggling for a second when he heard the exotic accent of his opponent. 'I feel nothin but Reggae, mon!'

Riolu tilted his head after hearing that. 'What's Reggae?'

The Pokemon that belonged to Violet paused abruptly before suddenly going through full force in trying to suffocate Riolu. 'Ya be deservin more than dat, ya rap-drunk swine!'

The young fighting type could feel the lack of oxygen getting to him, but… 'W-What's… rap?' He managed to gasp out.

Spearow on the other hand was bringing Seadra higher and higher towards the roof when Seadra returned to his senses and fired a Smokescreen in the air.

The flying type was caught in the black cloud and quickly flew out. As she did, she noticed Seadra was diving for the water again. Not wanting her opponent to regain her advantage, Spearow dove down and managed to smack Seadra to land into a nearby platform.

Lily's Seadra shook their head. 'Like, could you not keep hitting me, you brute?'

'Brute?! I am the next Chieftain of the Spearow Clan!'

'Like, what does that even mean? I bet half those words are made up, like, OMG!'

'You are the one making up the words that I am sure do not exist! AAAAHHHH!' Spearow yelled before gunning straight for Seadra, who then fired another Smokescreen.

Ash noticed all of this. He noticed Riolu unable to shake off Tentacool, he noticed Seadra getting back into the water and continuing to blind Spearow, and he noticed how Nidorino was losing stamina fast, with how his attack was starting to crack faster under the clash between him and Seaking.

The Trainer calmed himself down. Things were looking bad for everyone, there had to be a way to turn their situation… around… hold on a second. This was a three on three, not three 1 versus 1. Memories from the fight with Nidoking flashed back to Ash's head. It took everyone together to defeat the powerful evolved Pokemon. They worked together, even using moves together… to win.

Which meant...

"Spearow fly up!" Ash shouted out quickly as Spearow did so. The raven haired teen then pointed down towards where Tentacool and Riolu was. "Use Mirror Move!"

The flying type blinked and was briefly confused, but she then summoned an image of the Seadra using Smokescreen and blasted a dark cloud to where Tentacool and Riolu where.

Ash cupped his hands. "Riolu! He can't see! You can!"

Hearing the voice, Riolu closed his eyes and found out that Tentacool was distracted and soon broke free of the hold from the water and poison type. He then heard an extra command from Ash and using his aura, Riolu tossed Tentacool into the air and fired a strong Vacuum Wave to send the dual type flying through the air… and ended up crashing behind Seaking!

Seaking was momentarily distracted, and Ash quickly capitalized and sent a message through his link for Prince Nidoriono. (Now!)

Prince Nidorino saw the hesitation and then jumped, pushing through Seaking's attack and hitting them both right for the water!

The sudden explosion of water all shot up… and drenched Sabrina all the way in the benches.

The Sensational Sisters, despite all being young adults, could help but act like school girls, poorly trying to hide their laughter at the misfortune of the psychic user.

The raven haired trainer swallowed his spit when he felt a dark chill coming over form his travel companion. He focused back into the battle where Nidorino landed in the same platform as Riolu.

Ash pumped his fist, finally they were getting some—

Thud!

To the surprise of the challengers, Spearow suddenly dropped to the platform they were on. Her team and trainers were obviously surprised, but Spearow had this bad look on her face and was convulsing weakly…

It took another half second for Ash to realize: Spearow was fighting a water and _poison_ type Pokemon. During her fight with Seadra, sometime in the smoke, Seadra must have poisoned her!

However, before Ash could think of his next move, the platform all three of his Pokemon were in suddenly flipped over. Ash noticed that all three of the sensational sister's water types were already moving back in the water.

Riolu was the first to get back up, Nidorino followed, trying to help up a weakened Spearow, but now all three of them were in a worse state than before!

Three noticeable movements in the water started to circle around Team Luckless. The Sensational Sister's Pokemon were circling their prey like Mandibuzz.

(Ash!? Any more ideas!?) Riolu screamed in the link as the circling was slowly but surely getting smaller. Spearow couldn't fly anymore, and Prince Nidorino was too weak to perform another miniature island summon.

(I-I have one) Team Luckless looked towards Spearow who said that in the link. (Riolu, it's up to you and Nidorino, I've got strength for one last move…)

The idea she had was simple, it borrowed Ash's idea of all of them working together, but this time more on support rather than helping each other out. However, time was short as all three of their opponents rushed them, giving them no more time to plan.

Spearow started glowing and summoned another Mirror Move Phantom of Seadra unleashing another Smokescreen, blinding everyone from the point of impact. There were sounds of splashing and soon, Riolu was seen as if shot out of the water by a secondary force and skyrocketed near the ceiling.

At the apex of his jump he focused both his palms together and brought them behind his back while facing the arena. Blue and gold—wait, inside his palms… it was Nidorino's Life Orb! Riolu was combining his aura along with the energy converting power of the Life Orb into one massive attack!

As Riolu was channeling Vacuum Wave, something else happened, the raw power he was channeling and inputting was far more potent than any of his strongest aura powered up Vacuum Waves before. In fact, he could feel something in the back of his head, a power he had never accessed, but felt so right to have...

There was a brilliant light coming from the small fighting type as he started to push his hands out and scream…

'F-FO-FOCUS BLAAASSTTT!'

The light suddenly condensed before exploding with likeness to a star, and what was shot out was a blue orb of energy moving so fast and vibrating so wildly, it almost looked like the rules of physics that forced things to go straight were struggling to control the nearly uncontainable attack.

Said spinning orb of energy pierced through the smokescreen and made a solid splash noise. For a second, nothing seemed to happen.

Then light started shinning out of the smokescreen—followed by a large explosion blasting _all_ the water out of the arena, and creating a large wave that threatened to swallow everyone unfortunate enough to be on the ground floor.

Ash's brown eyes widened when seeing the giant wave about to sweep him away. "Oh cra—!"

The Sensational Sisters were also swept away by the wave, while this time, Sabrina was chuckling under the safety of a personal psychic barrier she erected.

As the water washed away by the drains around the gym, Sabrina spotted Ash on the very end of his side of the field with both Nidorino and Spearow on him. She looked over towards the other side and saw the Sensational Sisters all washed up—huh water pun—and had all three of their Pokemon on them with swirls on their eyes.

Noticing the missing member, Sabrina looked down towards the now empty pool of water to see lone Riolu looking up to the giant walls around him.

'Hello? … Did we win?!' The little fighting type shouted out loud while cupping his hands.

"WHAT IN ARCEUS NAME HAPPENED HERE!?" Sabrina looked towards the door to see a red haired girl in a tomboyish style of clothes walk in and look utterly exasperated and baffled.

Sabrina put a hand on her chin. "Ah, she must be Misty."

* * *

"For winning the Cerulean City Gym Challenge..."

"And for making us have to repair the storm drains we put inside the Gym," The youngest and technically true gym leader of Cerulean City, Misty muttered darkly.

Daisy laughed nervously before continuing what she was saying. "For winning the Cerulean City Gym Challenge in an overwhelming knock out… by knocking out not only your opponent's Pokemon, but your own, the trainers your were facing against, and yourself..." Daisy wondered why she needed to spell that out and instead got out the Gym badge, "Its our honor to bestow you this Cascade Badge for… having a creative—"

"Expensive."

"Way of winning." Daisy finished and gave the badge to a drenched Ash before looking back to Misty for that previous comment.

"Thanks!" Ash said as he looked at his newest badge! Now, he needed at least six more… eight if he wanted that challenge…

But now, his goals were that much easier to reach!

Misty sighed before she started talking and pushing Ash out the door. "Okay, now we have no choice but to close the gym down and fix everything. Thank you for coming, and come again—never!"

Ash couldn't even open his mouth before the door was slammed behind him. However, soon Sabrina and Riolu walked out, with the former looking very happy.

"It's the first time I've witness both Pokemon and trainer working together like that to overcome hard odds. I must admit your battles are at least entertaining." The Psychic trainer spoke up.

"… Why did you and the older sisters glare at each other so many times?"

The older psychic paused at the question before shrugging her shoulders. "I heard nothing but rather underwhelming things about them for some time. I wasn't expecting them to be actually decent in a team rather than singular trainers."

Ash absorbed that before smiling. "So that means I'm pretty good in a team battle, huh?"

"You call that a team battle? I've seen more coordination from strangers than with your team."

The raven haired teen blanched at the fact his pride was shot down so fast.

"Still," Sabrina began, oddly finding herself smiling for quite some time. "As long as I've been with you, you and your Pokemon seem to have this ability to make the unexpected happen. And I find that rather interesting."

As soon as she said this, suddenly, the robotic Corphfish booted back up by some bizarre miracle and started singing again.

"Under the water!~ Under the water!~ Down where it's denser, and it is darker, take it from me!~"

Sabrina's smile died faster than when she shot down Ash. "On second thought..."

Riolu suddenly had a look of realization on his face when hearing the robotic singing machine. 'Oh! By the way, what's Reggae… and rap?'

"… I don't know what those are." Sabrina stared incredulously at Ash before he turned to her. "Do you know Sabrina?"

"It's official: I find this odd occurrences more annoying than interesting now."

* * *

+Author Notes+

Okay! So a short chapter, it's basically a gym battle, so… yeah, nothing really too crazy here. I wanted to try and make battle more than just commanding attack and orders. What do you guys think of the battles so far? (Also, Riolu learns Focus Blast! Whoo! I wanted Aura Sphere at first, but I thought about it a bit more, and I feel that should probably later on for a much more special event.)

Anyway, I'm excited for the next chapter! It's going to be a doozy!


	11. Ep 11: Nothing Goes Amiss in Transit!

Cerulean City is a beautiful city. It has clean streets, kind people, and lovely weather. It really reflects how peaceful the entirety of the Kanto Region really is.

"What the hell!?" A man cried out angrily as he looked at his now empty wallet in front of a smoothie stand. "I know I had cash in this!"

"Sir," The young man behind the counter sighed, obviously doing his best to go through the motions of dealing with 'animated' customers. "Does this mean you want to pay with a card? There's a five dollar minimum purchase."

"Don't patronize me! You had something to do with this, didn't you!? I demand to speak to your manager!"

As that debacle started heating up, a young man with hair like the color of the desert, a skin tone as if he had lived there his whole life, and wearing an elaborate blue long-coat was drinking his smoothie to cool down.

He walked out of the shop nonchalantly as everyone watched the debacle between the angry customer and management. "Thanks for the money, good sir." He whispered with a smirk.

As he kept walking, he turned a corner towards one of the many parks the city had.

On one bench, there was this stranger feeding bird seeds to a bunch of wild Pidgeys. The stranger wore a long trench coat, gloves, and a fedora to cover most of his face from the sunlight.

The blue-clad young man sat down on the empty side of the bench and stared at the flying types.

"You're John Doe?" The young man who looked around the age of eighteen asked quietly.

The one addressed as john Doe scoffed. "You're Snagger? You're younger than you made yourself to be."

"I still expect your end of the deal." The one calling himself Snagger responded in a way that was flat, but someone more experienced could feel a threatening undertone to that monotone.

The other fully dressed stranger placed his hand on the birds seeds and threw something to the birds. But when then he placed something right beside the bag and slid it towards the one wearing a silver visor.

As Snagger caught the item, he saw that it was a USB drive.

"It's all in here?" Without even moving his head form the entire time they were having this 'conversation', Snagger placed the item into one of his inside pockets.

"All of the data, and the schedules. Even though they're using a public transport, they've got most of their bases covered. It'll take another task force to properly get it done."

The one known as 'Snagger' smiled. "You make it sound like this isn't going to be fun when I pull it all off."

* * *

Ash and his Pokemon were simply in awe as they entered into the Cerulean City Metro Station. The young boy from Pallet town had never witnessed something rich in agriculture and modern art, with trees being indoors, statues of water Pokemon that were spewing out water into a fountain, and floors of a material he was sure was some kind of fancy stone if it let him see his own reflection very easily. The most exposure Ash had to the outside world was pretty much Professor Oak's lab back out in the boonies.

Sabrina herself almost, and I emphasize this greatly, _almost_ thought it was cute that Ash was such a country bumpkin to be wowed by superstructures of big cities.

'The floors are so shiny!' Jigglypuff smiled and waved at his own reflection on the floor.

'My feet have never felt this type of floor before.' Riolu added in as his paws met the marble floor.

'I have decided, my kingdom shall be as grand as this!' Prince Nidorino declared boldly.

'I wonder what kind of defensive purposes these colorful rocks have in case of an invasion of a rival tribe?' Spearow pondered out loud while looking at some of the statues.

At this point, Sabrina herded Ash and his partners, "Come on, we don't want to be late for those train tickets you bought for us."

Sabrina suddenly stopped mid step. Ash looked back towards the older companion who seemed unusually distracted. "What's up?"

The more experienced psychic blinked before shaking her head, "Nothing, let's keep moving." That was a lie, but at the same time, it may as well be nothing if she avoided it.

She felt a spike of energy—psychic energy. She could feel a blanket of the energy seemingly scanning the area. But why? Of course she could easily mis direct it, but where was this coming from? It's too wide spread and big for a single person or Pokemon to be using this power.

She soon found her answer when they reached their station area.

"Oh hey, I've never seen a marching band in person before." The raven haired teen commented while looking towards the group in question. They wore white with gold accented uniforms one would see from a normal marching band and they were carrying many luggages that had the shape of different instruments.

Yet for Sabrina, she noticed some things off about the 'marching band'. Since when do marching bands all look like olympic athletes? And since when did they have a large group of Psychic Pokemon with them? They must have been the group trying to scan the area before.

Which means that they must be specialists in disguise of some kind. Not that anyone but her could sense it. But why were they all here? She doubted there was anything of value here, but their presence only confirmed something was amiss.

As much as she would have liked to peek into the minds of one those people, and while she could easily over power all those psychics they have in their possession, it would be too much work to deal with whatever was going on just to sate her curiosity. She would simply have to lay low and stay out of their way.

"Guys, check it out!" And then there was a certain teen whose luck surpassed that of fictional works. The raven haired trainer found a pamphlet of the train they were about to ride. "The train we're ridding is a new high class bullet train that just opened to the public. It's super fancy, they even have a dinning cart with a buffet in it!"

'What's a buffet?' Riolu tilted his head to the side as he repeated the word.

"It basically means all you can eat!"

And like that, Sabrina felt a new pressure in the air without the need of her powers. Ash's usually lively Pokemon just… they just stopped to process the words they just heard.

'All?'

'You?'

'Can?'

'Cheese...' All four of them droned on with a monotone and almost hypnotic voice. Their usually, full-of-life eyes now looked hollow and drool specifically was falling from the corner of Riolu's mouth.

"Wow this train has everything! It's a good thing Team Instinct has a fifty precent discount when buying public transportation tickets!" The black haired teen in question happily said as he walked ahead, innocently oblivious to the walking time bombs now following around him.

A sigh escaped Sabrina. "I am staying clear of whatever madness comes next. No matter what."

The more experienced psychic followed Ash. However, with her powers suppressed, she was unable to spot someone who was also eyeing the marching band with an intensity much like she did a while ago.

* * *

 _The Temporal Diamond, named after it's beautiful and almost otherworldly sheen, this large diamond was found in millennium old temple shrine that was built in honor of the Pokemon, Dialga. The Diamond itself is a priceless artifact, and some rumors go as far as to say that the diamond itself contains essence of Dialga and is capable of low level temporal control. Some have claimed that time itself can slow down or stop when one holds the diamond in their palm, though that is nothing but speculation._

In a dark room, someone was walking away from a computer that was running. There was a the sound of a click. An old station radio started to wind up before it started to play a heavy rock and roll song.

 _Due to it's priceless value, or one nearing 1 billion in price of rarity, it is always escorted by a high class security consisting the best of over half a dozen regions._

The sounds of zippers could be heard in the dark room, gloves were stretched to the limit to ensure there would be no loose air, or loose grips when the time came.

 _As of this escort, the Temporal Diamond shall be transferred incognito in a public transportation between Cerulean City and Diagon City in the Knato Region via Bullet Train._

Metal clanked together as cylindrical items were picked up, holographic screens showing data and info were put on, and quickly shut off.

 _While there is great risk in using public transportation for the transfer, the new bullet train is capable of going 75-100 miles an hour, effectively meaning that the month-long foot travel between Cerulean City and the Mountainous City of Diagon can now be reduced to around three hours. Even the fastest of Flying Pokemon would have trouble keeping up with such speeds for a long period of time._

There was a mighty roar that did not come from an organic creature, but a beast made of metal and gasoline.

 _Not to mention the last third of the ride, leads directly to a subterranean path carved into the mountain range. If someone was going to try this… 'Great Train Robbery'… they would have to catch up with a moving train that is unable to stop, and leave before they reach the last third of the way or else get trapped into the tunnels leading directly into the Diagon City subway._

The sound of a garage door opening was heard, along with the light shinning down and slowly revealing a powerful machine.

 _So the only possible way for someone to pull this off is if they have their own special force infiltrate the train on broad daylight with some way to by pass over a dozen psychic scanners. There's no way one person can do this._

"Well... he's not wrong, but you two should be able to do the job." Snagger smiled as he looked towards the two Eeveelutions walking behind him. The two feline creatures jumped into a side cart of what was revealed to be a hover bike with a massive, pulsating engine that just screamed, 'Rapidash-power'.

"But I do like the sound of that: Great Train Robbery. Was that a movie?" And that was all Snagger said before the roar of the engine took over all sound and he sped out of his secret base.

* * *

"Status report?"

"Clear."

"Clear."

"All Clear."

His name was Korin Dirge, he was the commander of this operation and in charge of the safety of not only the diamond, but the lives of all passengers and employees in this bullet train while in the process of transfer. Honestly, he hated the idea of using a public transport in the first place, even if it was shiny and brand new.

The higher ups said that no one would ever know about the transfer here, but at the same time, his men were also in new territory as well, and not even an advantageous one in their favor. So it was more of command doing whatever they wanted and the actual staff picking up their slack—as usual.

"Attention passengers," An overhead radio began. "We will soon reach the Bevon Mountain Range, and the underground pass, for safety and security, please remain in your booths and seats as soon as you are able to."

Korin Dirge groaned. "Scarlet, Fernandez, hold your positions. I'm going to the catering cart for a snack. Might as well play the part of a band playing."

"Yes sir." The two agents agreed readily.

As the commander turned, he smirked and opened the door. "So don't end up shacking together when I'm gone." And he closed behind him before the girl and the boy could go into their incoherent, and flustered babbling.

With that little prank done, the man went into the cart… and quickly made his way towards the bar area.

The bar tender locked eyes with the man and asked, "What'll it be sir?"

"Just some milk if you have any." Couldn't even get drunk if he wanted to. Well, at least he liked the pay of his job.

However… a few table booths down from the head of the security…

"Okay, so here you go guys! Chocolate Supreme Sundae!" Ash cried out as the large chocolate based ice cream was put on the table.

'Oooohhh!' The teen's four partners were in awe at the desert in front of them.

"Chocolate always tastes good; I know you guys have never tried it but now seems like a good time for it." And with that, Ash and his partners all took a scoop—or for Prince Nidorino and Spearow, a bite—of the large sundae. "What do you guys think?" Ash looked at his Pokemon and his smile lowered. "Guys? Guys? Why are you all… vibrating? And why are all your pupils shrinking?"

And it was at that moment, that Ash learned sugar rush plus pint sized creatures with super powers equals everyone's day ruined. It was too bad that Sabrina was still in their original room booth trying to take a nap.

* * *

The master psychic shifted in her seat. "Dammit... Ash..." she whispered in her seat before continuing sleeping.

* * *

Outside of the fast moving train, there was a moving object that was running up to the public transportation with equal amounts of speed. However, due to the luxury functions of the train such as indoor television screens and free movie access, no one normal who was inside the train paid attention to the vehicle coming closer.

"EE!"

"Don't worry, I've got my Sonar Jammer on, and you two block any psychic energy from detecting us! Now, get ready to board, Umbreon, Espeon!" Then Snagger activated a machine that made a screen appear over the hover motorcycle that had the words, AUTO PILOT ENGAGED.

With precision like an expert, the young man in a blue trench coat jumped into the roof of the train along with his two Pokemon, aiming their landing into a cart with a roof latch leading inside.

He pointed towards it, and the Espeon's eyes started to glow. Clicks and unlocking were heard before the latch opened up and the boy and his partners jumped into what was revealed to be a luggage cart.

He brought out his right arm, where a mechanical object was fashioned around it, and on the back of his wrist, a small orb opened up to show a 3D hologram of the train schematics.

"Alright, the cameras here should be down for now after my sent program." He fished for his pockets and brought out three gas masks, one human, and two obviously specifically designed for the dark and the psychic type. "According to the info, the security group rented an entire cart just before the luggage cart, which means they're all behind… that door." He pointed to the direction in which they needed to go. As he put on his mask and as the Espeon used his powers to put on masks for both he and his brother, Snagger continued to talk while getting out three cylindrical objects. "Espeon, I'm going to need you to move these gas bombs carefully after all the windows, vents, and doors are locked—"

To Snagger's surprise, he noticed the door was suddenly set to lock by the electronic pad right next to the door. But he hadn't touched it yet. Suddenly, he heard the sounds of screaming and muffled gasps. Then soon, he could notice colored smoke slipping through the door from the opposite side.

"The hell?" Snagger recognized the color. It was a knockout gas mixed with a Sleep Powder variant.

Snagger looked towards his hologram and started to open up a data screen. He tried hacking into the security cameras of the next room, but to his surprise, he had found out that the system was under lockdown, and it wasn't by him or the original company of the train.

Someone already hacked the train and took out the guards? … Wait a second, this meant that someone **else** was trying to steal the diamond!

"That bastard! He didn't just sell the information to me, did he!?" As Snagger worked on hacking the hackers who hacked the controls after he thought he hacked it first. However, there was a beep coming from the door, signaling it was unlocking. Snagger and his two partners scattered behind the bags, before the door opened and more gas rolled in.

Snagger carefully peeked behind his hiding spot and was met with something he didn't expect to see: the stupidest looking person he had ever seen outside of his home region. The dude was wearing a bowl cut with blue-green hair, some kind of eighties sci-fi get up, and had a bizarre G logo on their torso. The see through gas masks he wore made him look even more stupid, like a cheap alien from those old, campy movies.

The freak turned back towards the room Snagger was originally aiming for, "Admin Saturn, the luggage cart seems clear. No one is here."

"Check every nook and cranny, we don't want someone to be hiding here somehow." A much more intimidating voice called out from inside the other cart. Snagger knew what the word 'Admin' meant.

"Really? It's always a Team Organization." Snagger whispered to himself in exasperation. However, it was cut short when the grunt was going to check behind his bags. Wes tensed, as did his Pokemon. It looked like this was going to be a hard fought es—

"Sir!" Another voice, more likely another grunt cried out from the room. "We can't find the commander!" That made the other Grunt stop in his tracks and look back into the room.

"What?" The voice of Saturn asked with surprise not unlike Snagger's a while ago. "He is the one in possession of the Temporal Diamond, what we are looking for, and he's not here!? … Call our men in the drivers' end! See if they can find him!"

"About that sir, they reported that they spotted him in the dining cart in the back, but for some reason all the feeds there got cut!" Yeah, that was mostly Snagger's doing. Good thing they didn't seem to notice the secondary source.

"What!? We were in the cart behind them! How did no one notice the commander making his way past us!?" It was obvious the leader of this group was quite vexed at such a thing.

"S-Sir! We did! You said that one of our agents would tail him… but he never reported back in..."

"No point now! We're on a time table, we're going to have to rely on more violent measures now. Capture the commander and get that diamond! All men move to the dining cart!" The Admin known as Saturn commanded and as soon as the Grunt trying to check the bags turned to follow, Wes made his move and grabbed the Peon back into a choke hold.

* * *

(The things I do for money,) Snagger thought to himself as he carefully tailed behind the fast moving group. It seemed like they were throwing caution to the wind, and to be fair, with their initial attack missing the intended target, it really was time for a show of force. Wes hoped to be able to use the upcoming chaos to steal the Diamond and make his escape…

Yet… neither him, nor the goons he was following expected _that_ type of chaos.

They expected a normal dinning hall, they didn't expect to see _hell_ itself. Food, shattered windows, and pained screams filled the cart. The source of the screams where sobbing civilians.

One person, who was crawling on the ground, desperately reached out to the people in the weird garb. "S-Sir! M-Monsters!" And then he fainted. The dude actually looked like a normal person, so that did mean that these, 'G-dudes', actually wore wigs. While that was less stupid than having it as their real hair, it returned to being full stupid when Snagger realized this idiots purposely wore that of their own free will.

However their attention to the missing member was cut short as the newcomers could only stare as four Pokemon plagued the entire cart, throwing around items and eating through other people's foods like demons of gluttony. Among all the civilians, a rather distressed, messy, raven haired teen in a cap was desperately trying to catch any of the four either by his body or what was obviously Poke Ball lasers.

"Jigglypuff, stop eating those! You're not even eating apples anymore! Nidorino, stop licking your reflections! I don't think the glass is sanitary! Spearow, stop challenging anything bigger than you to a fight! Inanimate objects are incapable of knowing what honor is! And where the heck is Riolu!?" Ash cried out desperately for who knows how long? Three minutes.

The stupor of the thieves all halted when something blue jumped in front of them.

'私の友人で、幻の銀河、お気に入り、フォローをサポートし、彼のお願いと共に私の作品のレビューを行く!' There was a Riolu whooping madly while raising both his hands up because he was car— **the Temporal Diamond!?** He has it!?

"Get him!" Saturn quickly cried out as the other grunts, with their Pokemon, tried to spread out and attack the madly whooping fighting type—

"No! Wait! They attack anyone who tries to subdue them!" Ash cried out before tackling down Saturn just before his other grunts were bowled over with a chair being thrown at the other grunts, knocking them back into the other cart. The other Pokemon, looked away in surprise, which turned out to be a huge mistake as Prince Nidorino, and Spearow ended up doing a war cry and ended up body slamming through the remaining Pokemon and running into the next cart, exclaiming things about 'honor' and 'beauty' as they did so with Riolu and Jigglypuff not to far behind.

After seeing his own Pokemon run ahead, the young teen got off the man he tackled down. "Are you alright?" The raven haired teen then met eyes with Snagger, who was behind the door corner, no doubtably safe from his temporary super crazed friends. "Umm sorry about this?"

"What on earth happened to your Pokemon!?" Saturn cried out as he got back up and looked to Ash.

"I don't know! One minute, we're all eating ice cream and then the next—"

"Hold up, you gave them ice cream? Isn't that poisonous to a Pokemon's biology?" The blue coated boy asked before looking at Saturn. It seemed as if he didn't seem to suspect him now that his cover was blown.

"It is?" The two thieves were starting to understand what type of trainer had caused this madness, and it was making a horrible amount of sense.

Saturn slowly got up and spoke while dusting himself off, "That's just a rumor, but at the same time, Pokemon do have different physiologies; their effects with human food range from normal and stomach aches… but I have never heard of a case where _four different species_ _ **all get a sugar rush!**_ " Saturn yelled out to the boy, and made the teen cower.

"I'm sorry! _"_ The teen apologized quickly. "Look, I couldn't catch any of them on my own, so I need help to get them! And that jewelry that Riolu stole!"

Both Saturn and Snagger froze they looked back towards the now unconscious group of Pokemon and people back in the dinning cart. Those four Pokemon of this trainer seemed to be powerful under the influence of a sugar rush. And they knew that their window for escaping with the diamond was slowly closing.

Under these circumstances…

Snagger fought the urge to grab the bridge of his nose. "Me and my Pokemon will help you."

Saturn nodded after a few more seconds, "I will help as well. I will return the diamond back." Snagger would have said something if he didn't want to tip anything off.

"Great! Let's go after them! My name is Ash, by the way, what's yours?"

"… Just call me Saturn." The leader of the G-men closed his eyes and fought the urge to sigh. Then, Ash turned to Snagger.

"And you are?"

Snagger just contemplated on just saying his codename, but then Saturn was now looking at him suspiciously. This prompted him to use at least his other fake name, "Call me Leo."

"Great!" Ash cried out before they went into the room beyond the first— "What!? I wasn't even gone that long!? How did my Pokemon knockout all these marching band members?!" The young teen looked horrified at the damages before him that his Pokemon didn't cause.

"We need to stop them, fast." Saturn, the sly bastard who was avoiding all blame, said quickly and patted Ash's shoulder to increase the need to catch them.

"We're going to need Pokemon, though. I don't think an Espeon and Umbreon are enough." Ash looked down on the two eeveelutions near Leo.

"Not to worry," Saturn said as he made a call, "I have some other friends who can help subdue—"

"SIR HELP!?" The person in the other end of his call screamed out before there was a loud thud that was felt in their cart, before the radio turned to silence.

"On second thought, I have some Pokemon with me." He whistled, and as soon as he did, a round a half a dozen Pokemon appeared: a Duskinoir, Dusclops, Gengar, Haunter, Drifblim, and a Gastly, phased through the outer walls and into the cart.

Leo inwardly realized these ghost Pokemon must have been how they got past the psychic types of the security team.

"These guys should be enough to catch your Pokemon." Saturn spoke out.

Ash then opened the door towards the luggage cart, but no sooner than he did, several bags were thrown at them. In an instant, before Leo or Saturn could make a command, Ash raised out his hand and all the thrown luggage froze mid air.

"Wait a second, you're a psychic?!" Saturn turned to the younger kid.

"Well, I'm a new one, yeah?" Ash and the others then noticed that trainer's wild Pokemon were now opening up bags and messing with all of their items. "Guys, don't do that!"

Both thieves were flabbergasted at the implications that this kid could use powers from the start. "If you're a psychic, just hold them down with your power!" Leo screamed out.

"I tried! Look what happens when I do!" As if to prove a point, Ash aimed his power towards Riolu, who was chugging down an empty thermostat, but suddenly, the little fighting type back flipped and the thermostat was left levitating in the air. "I don't know how the others besides Riolu are doing it, but they can sense whenever I try to restrain them and avoid getting caught!"

Saturn was first to state something out. "Well they're no way they can all avoid multiple psychic based powers. We'll all use it, then you return them all." As he said this, he motioned the ghost Pokemon under him to slowly spread around the area, no doubt encircling the four. "You, boy in blue," Leo did his best not to react to that, but it took more willpower than he realized he had. "Distract the four with your own Pokemon."

It was only through repeated reminders of the time for escaping closing in that the young man flasely named Leo allowed himself to be ordered around. "Umbreon! Use Reflect to block their exit, Espeon, if you can't catch them like this kid, try to trap them with the items they're using!"

Both Eeveelutions did as they were told, further cornering the four crazed Pokemon. They all seemed momentarily distracted and instantly, Ash capitalized on this and fired two return lasers on Jigglypuff and Prince Nidorino, for the first time in like ten hellish minutes, the beams hit and both of them were returned.

"Now Dusclops! Prevent the last two from moving with Mean Look!"

The Dusclops appeared towards the right side—then there was a loud splat noise when a thrown underwear was hit into the lone eye of the ghost type. Taken by surprise, the Dusclops screamed and tried to get the nasty thing off. The other Ghost types and Espeon and Umbreon quickly tried to close in on Riolu—who was pointing and laughing at the Dusclops. However, Spearow suddenly started to gather a lot of energy with a mighty yell, unleashed around ten Dusclops Mirages.

"What is—"

"Get down, that's Mirror Move!" Ash used his telekinesis to cover him and the other two with a barrier of bags a second before Spearow did an impressive ten way Mean Look that locked all the other Pokemon into a stun.

Ash grabbed out Spearow's ball. "I can't put the bags down or she'll lock us down too!"

Saturn noticed a purse open and quickly fished for something inside. He then opened up a miniature mirror and used it to peek around the shield of bags. "The eyes are all still up and all the other Pokemon are still stunned into place. I've never seen a Mirror Move used like this." Saturn's constantly neutral face then frowned worse than he had that day. "And I think your Riolu is currently locking lips my Dusclops."

"Well that was Imagery I didn't need to know." Leo bluntly commented while Ash had this really dumbfounded look on his face.

"How is he kissing a ghost—oh wait he has Foresight." Instead of feeling satisfied, Ash was just more confused as he thought about what his partner was doing under the sugar rush.

At this point, Leo was having enough of this and pointed towards Ash's Poke Ball. "Can you give me that? And where is the Spearow now?" That second question was pointed towards Saturn.

Saturn was confused but then peeked back with the mirror. "She's still in the same spot… just squawking madly."

Ash decided not to say anything about Spearow trying to challenge the, and he quotes, 'gods from beyond the wall of text' to a staring contest.

"Is she moving from her spot in anyway?"

"No, she is still as an airborne Pokemon can be." Saturn responded to Leo's second question.

After hearing that, Snagger Leo was seen smiling while fishing for something in another bag. "That's all I needed to know." As he got his hand out, he revealed that he had fished out another mirror, this time it was hand held one and he tossed it high above the make shift shield of Ash. As the Mirror turned into an angle that showed Spearow, Leo launched the return laser at the mirror which then bounced and hit Spearow, causing her to return back into Ash's Poke Ball.

Wes then caught Spearow's Poke Ball and the mirror he 'borrowed, and handed the sphere back to the psychic trainer. Seeing the source of the lock down, Ash willed all the bags back and now saw all their other Pokemon free form the Mean Look hold.

… They were just in time to see Dusclops push Riolu away, only for the little fighting type to still hold on to the diamond.

"There's just one left..." Saturn narrowed his eyes as everyone looked at the emanation Pokemon.

"Riolu," Ash brought out the last Poke Ball. "Stay still, there's no where left to go!"

"C' est fini, Anakin! J'ai les hauteurs!" After screaming something intelligible, Riolu bent his knees and shot to the roof—blasting right through an already opened latch.

"Aww man! I can't believe he broke the emergency escape hatch!" Ash cried out while clamping his head. This was just getting worse by the second.

"We can still catch him!" Leo, also letting Ash take the blame for something he did, pointed out. "We'll have to go after him, but be careful not to fall."

At the mention of that, all the ghost Pokemon flew after the fighting type, phasing through the walls, with the Eeveelutions having to jump after him. Saturn followed by jumping out of the train with little effort, with Leo close after. Ash was somewhat worried but followed his two new 'friends' up into the roof of a high speeding train.

To his surprise, it was really hard to keep balance, more so that he felt like he had to use some of his new psychic powers to keep him grounded. Leo and Saturn seemed alright though, but the young teen wasn't aware the two thieves had gear specifically made for this robbery in the first place, including a situation of them being on the roof of the high speed train.

However, while Ash struggled against the G Force, Riolu seemed to be dancing with the wind as he avoiding blasts by nimbly jumping everywhere and off the Ghost Pokemon under Saturn. … And sometimes even locking lips with some of the ghost Pokemon. That reminded him of a cartoon Bunnelby…

Meanwhile, both Saturn and Leo turned back to see that they were heading towards the mountain range leading towards Diagon City. It meant that their window for escaping with the diamond was running short.

"We need to get that Riolu!" Leo screamed over the winds.

While all the other Pokemon still kept trying to pin down the zippy fighting type, Ash snapped his fingers and a his features visibly brightened up. "You two working together gave me an idea!"

Leo and Saturn both looked at each other weirdly after hearing that, they were working together?

Ash pointed on. "Everyone, keep attacking Riolu, but this time, aim for the shiny thing in his palm!"

Both thieves widened in alarm when Ash called that out, even more so when _their_ Pokemon listened to the trainer!

With renewed focus, The Ghost Pokemon all launched a Shadow Ball from different directions, causing Riolu to backflip midair.

As soon as he saw this, Ash pointed to the gem. "Now Espeon grab the jewel!"

"What!? Hey!" Leo's complaint was ignored as his own Pokemon listened to the young teen's order and made a reach for the crystal mid air while Riolu was hanging on to it.

Ash acted fast, and recalled his first partner now that he was finally in one place long enough. As soon as he did, though, Riolu dropped to the roof of the train then fired a Vacuum Wave right into Espeon.

The psychic Pokemon let go of his hold on the jewel and it started to bounce on the roof and made it's way towards the edge of the train.

"NO!" Both Leo and Saturn cried out.

However, they both realized the item was frozen mid air and they both noticed Ash with his hand extended out. "Don't worry! I'm sure the person will be sad if they suddenly lost something so expensive looking."

That wasn't why they were crying out no, but then again. They were very glad they had met such a naive psychic unwilling helping a bunch of thieves. … Even if this naive psychic caused this problem in the first place…

Suddenly, the sugar crazed Riolu jumped right for the jewel again. But with Ash in control, he yanked it and caught it back in his palm, before showing off the object in the moderately insane Riolu's face. "If you want the shiny object, you'll have to get me, Riolu!"

Ash then jumped back inside the train with Riolu speeding fast after him and by proxy, everyone else. The raven haired teen bolted as fast as he could, using his telekinesis to ward and shield away Riolu who was chasing him down and randomly speaking some language he didn't understand. But he saw how to capture his friend, the two nice people—to him—had shown him how and what he needed to do to capture his crazed Pokemon, and for them to stop Riolu, he needed to head back into the dining cart.

As he reached for ground zero, Ash quickly ducked under a counter and began searching.

As Riolu came chasing in, he was screaming words in a very angry sounding language. However, Ash then almost slammed a plate on the counter and smiled towards his crazed partner. "Hey, Riolu? I got cheese pizza! Your favorite..."

Riolu paused mid curse and started to drool when his glazed over eyes looked at the cheesy slice of bread.

"I'll even let you have this shiny object again." The raven haired teen spoke as sweetly as he could, putting the gem right down next to the pizza.

See, when he was able to catch the other three, they were all distracted. Prince Nidorino and Jigglypuff were distracted while Spearow was caught by unexpected beam. So in order to catch Riolu, the emanation Pokemon needed to have his attention split. However, with his innate ability to sense aura, this made taking the little one by surprise very hard to actually do so. But Ash knew his Riolu had one specific clink in his armor: he loved cheese.

So when he saw the pizza, for the first time in a long ten minutes, Riolu was finally moving a straight and easy to read path. One that Ash noticed and quickly used his Poke Ball to capture the fighting type when he jumped for the two items.

"Yes! We did it!" Ash cried out as he pocketed Riolu's sphere and grabbed the diamond off the counter at the same time that Leo and Saturn came in.

Both thieves were glad that they had succeeded…wait a darn second. Why were they feeling content about helping a kid!? They needed the—

"So during the chaos, I forgot where Riolu got this diamond from. Should I just wait for someone to wake up or?" As Ash said this, he unwittingly walked closer towards the two thieves.

"Give it here." Both Saturn and Leo cried out with their hands extended out. The two men looked at each other and their eyes narrowed instantly.

"Give it to who?"

"Me!" Ash blinked when he heard the two of them talk at the same time.

"Oh forget this!" Leo dug into his pockets and then threw something in the ground. It ended up being the Sleeping Gas Bomb he was originally saving before Saturn and his team ended up using theirs before hand.

The bomb exploded, and quickly Leo and his Pokemon made their way out, taking the diamond in hand.

This left a now unconscious Ash Ketchum laying on the floor and with a Kneeling Saturn who seemed to stab himself with an adrenaline booster shot as the gas seeped out of the window cracks.

"That bastard!" He then quickly called his remaining members. "Team Galactic, report in! There was someone else trying to steal the diamond! Aircrafts 3 and 5 find him! We can't let him escape with the diamond!" He then ran out of the dinning cart, forgetting the teenage boy who he unexpectedly bonded with.

As soon as Saturn ran out, the door on the opposite side of the dinning cart opened up, revealing Sabrina finally awake. However, imagine her surprise that the first thing she witnessed when seeing the food area was nearly everything broken and tossed up as if a storm went through it.

Her eye narrowed towards the unconscious form of her unexpected student, seemingly asleep in the midst of this ruins or 'the eye of the storm'.

"I am starting to believe that punishing the boy is unfair with how often this keeps happening." Her eyes glowed was now going to use her powers for a far more mundane purpose: cleaning up.

* * *

It took far longer than he wanted, but 'Leo' had finally escaped Team Galactic. And had returned back into his secret base.

"Dang! That was… something." He didn't really have words, but as he took the Diamond out and looked at it, he gave a weak smile. "But at least I still got the diamond."

As he looked at his reflection, he thought back towards the smiling kid. "Ash, huh? I wonder who he is?"

There was a ringing on a phone in his garage that made the slightly tired thief groan before reaching for it.

"Hello?" The blue clad young man asked.

"Hello, Snagger Wes, former member of Team Snagem." The true name was revealed at last as Snagger Wes' eyes narrowed dangerously towards the phone.

"Who is this?" The thief's mind was going a mile a minute, pretty much no one knew about him existing except the people he met in Orre, and that region was basically and practically a wasteland. Nearly no one ever went or knew people from there, so who was this person who knew him specifically?

"That is not important. What is important is that I am… well… I am a collector of sorts, and I would like to hire you and certain individuals to a task that would require your personal skill set."

This was suspicious as all heck. A mysterious man who knew far too much about him, but was unwilling to share anything about himself? Yet at the same time, did he really want to test the waters and say no to this guy? There was something about his confidence on the phone, it was like whatever this person wanted, he would get.

So for now, Snagger Wes would play along. He'll figure out how to deal with this more as he finds more about whatever this call is about.

"… What's the pay?"

* * *

+Author Notes+

Writer's Block is a witch! You have no idea how hard it was to write this chapter! I had to scrap like three other chapters because I just didn't like them!

But enough complaints, I'm happy to introduce one of my favorite Pokemon Characters as a kid: Wes from Pokemon Colosseum! I just loved how different he is from all other Pokemon Protagonists then and since. First of all, he's a former member of Team Snaggem, he was part of an evil organization and just quit in the most badass way my like ten year old mind could ever see: exploding his old hideout's base.

I thought I could re-introduce him here in this story. Since I thought it would be fun. His inclusion helped me get rid of my writers block sooner than later. I at first wanted this chapter to be a train murder mystery… but then I realized… I sucked at writing mysteries, so I gave up when my drafts became waaaayyy tooo silly and I ended up having a detective rapping while solving the case. (I have no idea what my brain does since it's always sober.)

So instead, I settled with a strange take on a 'Great Train Robbery' scenario.

Well, I am really thankful that all of you like this story. It's mostly just for fun and such, and it's not all that serious. Thank you all for the support of this story too! I'm amazed that I've got already 100 plus followers and favorites. You guys are awesome.

I guess I'll sign off for now, have a great day!


	12. Ep 12: City of Sin

Neon lights shined like lens flares from all the many billboards that filled the side of sky scrappers. Cars drove at the pace of a Slugma and were all honking their horns louder than the last one due to the crowded streets of cars and people. Even though it was night, there was almost no cool air as the smog above seemed to trap in all the heat.

"Ah Diagon City, home of the world's best casinos." Sabrina would have breathed in deep, but the last time she did that, she inhaled someone smoking out a puff of cigarette. Ash Ketchum, on the other hand, was coughing quite a bit. He would definitely not be used to a place more crowded than the previous two cities. "And one of the dirtiest cities in Kanto." The telepath finished before looking at her companion. "If you have trouble breathing, you can filter out the smog of this place."

"I-I can do that?" The raven haired boy asked.

Sabrina closed her eyes. "Yes, just make sure you don't lock out oxygen." As soon as she opened them, she noticed a now gasping Ash Ketchum. Her eyes narrowed and she touched the, invisible psychic bubble around Ash's skull. "There, remember this feeling."

Sabrina blinked and snapped her view behind her. She could have sworn she just felt something angry, malevolent, and spiteful: killing intent. But then again, considering they were in 'sin city' was it just her picking up the feelings of some horribly disgruntled loser? Or did she just sense an actual threat.

Everyone knew that Diagon was the 'black sheep' of Kanto's nice, peaceful region. It was a cesspool that made even Orre look like haven at times. She knew this place had ties with the mafia, ironically making it the safest place from Giovanni and Team Rocket to have control over. However, this place was swarming with people, it would be nigh impossible to scan for so many people moving quickly in this area.

It would be even more arduous if a certain luck cursed child were to join her. "You go to the Pokemon Center, I have something to do here."

The teen looked, only to see Sabrina vanish into the crowd before he could say a word in edgewise. "You, know I feel like Sabrina's been kinda bummed lately."

Riolu jumped on his trainer's shoulders and looked to his friend. 'What makes you say that?'

"I haven't seen her smile in a while." He has seen her smirk and give something like cocky smiles, but never ones of pure joy. He wondered if he could try and give her some kinda of thank you gift for all the cool power tricks she's been teaching him.

He could do that actually! Ash quickly explained his thought process to his partner.

'Ooh! What do we get her as a present?'

And then he hit his first snag.

Of course, things like that had never really stopped the young teen then, and they weren't going to stop him now. "Hmm, I don't actually know. I never really knew anything about her besides her powers and Pokemon Battles."

The raven haired teen was soon distracted with his thoughts because of a flashing neon sign. Yet at thte same time, as he tilted his head a little more up, there was one neon sign that described a nearby super mall.

That looked like a good place to start.

* * *

Ash was rather overwhelmed with all the people, and the many diverse shops within the mega mall. There were like twelve different clothe stores on one hallway as far as the eye could see, he could see slot machines on another path, and the second floor filled with electronics. There was a map showing him that he was in section C out of A-Z in the mall, meaning that this massive place had over 20 more sections.

Where could he even start to look for a gift for Sabrina?

Secondary question, what do girls like?

Third question, how on earth is he supposed to know what a girl likes when he has never once understood them or his mother?

Well what about what Gary would like?

… After nearly a hundred memories in the span of a few seconds, all saying 'Smell ya later' to varying mocking tones that might even make a hit remix, Ash was starting to wonder why none of the people he knew, except maybe his mom, were normal.

"Huh, mom always said that if you don't know what to do, you can ask for help."

'Must be nice having a mom; I was just born. Humans get all the fun stuff.' Riolu puffed his cheeks and crossed his arms as Ash went towards an information center.

"Well ain't you sweeter than a cake with strawberry ice cream." The man with a funny hat Riolu couldn't stop starting at spoke up. "Tell ya wat, son. I can tell you what a girl wants."

"Really?"

"Now the key here is to-" And then he was smacked in the head by another man.

"Don't listen to him kid, he's a degenerate." The man withdrew his cane. He was an imposing figure, tall too. He had the air around him that was so noticeable, if you were to put him in a room of celebrities, and they would all flock to him with how his ver presence alluded with power. "But he's my degenerate friend. ...We don't want another complaint from the League about kids and teens getting traumatized more than they should be, Folzet."

"Hey, it's not my fault the place ain't kid friendly! Isn't that technically your job, boss!?"

"I'm the one who approves, not the one who acts." The older man, who was accompanied by a Houndoom with wrinkles on his face, looked over towards the teen. "Forgive my friend here, young man. Now why are you looking for a gift for a girl?"

Ash explained that his friend was feeling down and after hearing that, the boss seemed to give a small smile.

"How kind of you to care for your friend. Gifts depend on a personality. What type of person is your friend?"

"… She's a girl."

Both men froze for a second before processing that answer.

"Ahh." The older man seemed to realize something before pointing to the boy. "Are you by any chance from Pallet Town?"

Ash blinked. "How'd you know?"

There was a soft chuckle form the man. "I hang around the gym of this place, and so far? Three Pallet Town teens challenged the gym around this month. I wasn't expecting a fourth."

Ash folded his arms. The others already got here? How was he always one step behind everyone?

"They all were adorable country bumpkins. And they were all oblivious to certain things. The brunette boy had an ego the size of the mountain range, and somehow knew how to already drive cars. The red head didn't really know how to relax, but considering where she was…." He trailed off looking at the kid and coughed. "and the white haired girl seemed to be nervous wreck when her friends dragged her in to the gym to challenge the leader."

After that last one, he glared at the man behind the info booth. "Hey don't look at me. It's not my fault she took a wrong turn. You should be blaming the bouncers that weren't doing their job in that gentleman's club."

"What's a gentleman's cl—?"

"You don't need to learn that." The older man spoke as fast as the speed of no. He changed the subject while the boy was still in a confused state. "Come on, I have an idea to give a gift."

The man and the Houndoom started walking away, prompting Ash to follow after the old man.

"What's your name kid?" The old man asked as the clack of the cane moved in beat with his foot steps.

"Ash Ketchum."

"Well, I'm Leonardo Capone and this here is my friend, Tommy." He motioned to the old Houndoom walking next to him. "We'll be heading over there for your friend's gift."

Ash blinked as he saw the store they were going to. "Bath, Beyond, and Beds?"

* * *

The old man, Leonardo, was nice, Ash thought. He even knew a pathway out of the mall that was much less crowded than the main roads he came through.

They were currently walking through the park late at night, but the old man wearing a suit needed a break to rest his legs and the two made their way to an empty swing set.

"Being old is quite a hassle, I get tired much easier than before." The man sighed sadly. "Thank you for letting me take a break."

"No problem! In fact, thanks for the idea of Bath Salt. I think I bought another one for my mom and some of my other friends."

Ash and Riolu noticed that the old man was staring hard at him. The suited man also realized what he was doing and gave a soft chuckle.

"Forgive me, you remind me of my grandson when he was your age. He left some time ago to live elsewhere, so spending time with you has brought up some old memories."

"I remind you of your grandson?" The teen tilted his head to which his fighting type mirrored the move. However, the young teen then looked back at his gift and then said. "Ah, I should be thanking you for the advice on the gift. Are you sure she'll like it?"

"Bath Salt is a safe gift. I'm sure your older friend will appreciate it." As he was done saying this, a thought occurred to the man. "Just a question though, you want to challenge the gym tomorrow, right? I'm just asking since kid trainers come here only for the gym here."

"Right! I'm going to get my third badge there!" The raven haired boy pumped up as he said this.

"Oh? Any plans?" Ash and Riolu didn't seem to notice the old man's smile slowly growing as he asked this.

"The info from Team Instinct say that Daigon City Gym is a dark type gym! Luckily, Riolu is a fighting type and he'd definitely going to be in that battle!" The two young ones looked at each other and nodded with excitement.

Leonardo glanced over to Houndoom and winked, causing the old mutt to snort and roll his eyes. "Type advantage is always a safe bet. What else are you planning?"

"Well see," Ash was like a search engine on a browser, giving up too much information. "All they have online is that they're dark types, but thanks to Gary, he explained to me most Dark Types are usually powerful attack wise but their defenses aren't that great when compared to the other types. That leads me to think that they're like glass cannons of sorts. Which means I need to be quicker and have better defense!"

"Huh that makes sense on paper." Unfortunately for the raven haired teen, he had yet to realize the smile on both the old man and the old Houndoom were only growing as they heard this. "But your info, it's only saying the type. Gyms have themes as well, don't they?"

"Themes?"

"Yes themes. There are three gyms in Viridian City. I'm sure you know what the gyms stand for besides just their types, right?"

Ash thought back to all three of the gyms. Team Valor focused on the strength of Pokemon, Team Mystic relied on the mind and strategy of trainers and Pokemon, while Instinct was… was…

Uhhh… eggs?

* * *

Meanwhile, back in Viridian City, the leader of Team Instinct sneezed. The sneeze itself was normal, if not stronger than usual. It's what happened before, during, and after the sneeze where the problem begins.

"Oh crap! Someone catch that incubator I accidentally threw off the fifth floor!" Without waiting another second, the accomplished leader of Team Instinct listened to his gut and _dived_ after it.

* * *

Back in Diagon City, Ash was still thinking about what theme of instinct really had before the old man continued with his point.

"When gyms are made, the league asks them to have a theme to teach challengers. Pewter's Gym shows how tough any Pokemon raised can be, the Cerulean Gym is designed to show that there is beauty in a fight, and one shouldn't be shy with their talents. Diagon has a different theme than most." The old stranger said this as he closed his eyes.

"What is it?"

Opening just one eye with a glint of mischief, the old man responded, "You're going to have to learn that when you battle the gym leader."

Ash noticed the wording of that. "Wait. Do you know the gym leader? I think I recall you talking about him earlier too."

"Yes, I know him. He's as old as me, much crankier, and quite a silver-haired Ninetails." Leonardo spoke, but if Ash was paying any attention, which he almost never does when it isn't a battle, he would have noticed the older man struggling to smother his laughter.

Tommy the Houndoom lifted his head up in an abrupt manner. Riolu also snapped his head around the same direction Leonardo's partner was looking.

Leonardo's expression turned to that of a Pyroar about to attack as he stood up from the swing and saw a group of people, all wearing suits and hats, walk from behind the trees.

A man swaggered in, a cigar lit at the end and leaning hanging on his mouth. "Ey, boss! Nice night out here, ain't it?" The easy tone was like a that of a conman towards his unsuspecting victim.

"Boris," Leonardo had no kind air around him unlike his conversation with the teen moments ago. "Care to tell me what this is all about?"

The man named Boris stepped forward, removing his cigar to tap some burnt ash off. "You're time is up old fart. This city is mine now."

"So what? Is this a cu? How droll," Leonardo looked down towards Ash. "And as always, your timing is Rapidash crap."

"Aww that's cute, even in the end, you still have a soft spot for kids." Boris gave a smirk akin to blood red, crescent moon. He snapped his fingers, and soon, the men around them took out tommy guns all around them.

Leonardo cursed under his breath as—

"Protect!"

A green forcefield surrounded the people under the swing. No sooner than this was done, a hail of lead struck from all sides of the protective bubble.

The first round of bullets were cut short when they saw their bullets doing little with the forcefield up.

Everyone looked to Ash, returning a Poke Ball and with three other Pokemon out already.

"Hey! What's the big idea!? Who are you guys!?" The young trainer was warned that he may cross some bad people on his journey. But he never expected it now of all times.

The one known as Boris lifted his gun over his shoulder. "That ain't worth mentioning, brat. You're going to be dug six feet under with our former boss here."

"Boris, I'm going to give you one last chance." Leonardo's voice was one that had the power of a Hyper Beam and all of it's elegance despite it's calm volume. "Stop what you're doing now, and go home."

"Oh and what are you going to do!? When that purple pipsqueak's forcefield fails, nothing's stopping us from turning you into swiss cheese!"

The older man simply leered. However, everyone looked surprised as Ash stepped forward and raised one hand out.

The look of surprise on everyone's face was that of varying degrees, from a normal surprise, to that of utter disbelief. Yet it was still there as all the guns from the suited men were lifted up into the air… then had all of their screws, bolts, and bullets explode out of the air and fall harmlessly into the ground.

Ash smiled as he put his hand back down and wiped the sweat off his forehead. "I really have to thank Sabrina for all that practice on smaller control."

Leonardo looked over towards the young teen as Nidorino lowered the forcefield. "You're… a psychic?"

"An in training one!" The boy proudly stated before his smile returned towards a glare to those surrounding them. "But what about them?"

"They," Leonardo stepped forward, bring out two Poke Balls as he did so. "Are in for punishment."

Boris had his eyes widened, the weight of everything that could have gone wrong in his plan, had just so spectacularly did. "Get out your Pokemon! They can't beat us all!"

However, a blur of darkness swept across all men, as they reached for their pockets, they found nothing.

A second later, a Weavile was seen carrying a bunch of Poke Balls and dropping it near Leonardo.

"Thank you, Meyer. Now, Bugsy, if you please?" Leonardo slammed his cane into the ground and his shadow extended out towards all remaining suits.

The men all screamed as they were absorbed by the shadows, and out came a Spiritomb laughing after reappearing towards the old man.

Leonardo sighed and looked up to the sky. "And like that, my night is ruined."

"W-Who," Ash began as he looked at Leonardo. "Who were they, what happened to them? And why did they call you a boss?"

The old man gave an exhale that was weary as an old soldier. "They, are—were the mafia or mobsters of this city. They're all in a pocket dimension of Bugsy's design and are going to be there until I can figure out what to do with them. And lastly, the reason why they were calling me boss, is because I am their leader and head of all operations."

"Mafia?" Ash realized that word and all it's implications then pointed at the man. "Wait! you're a crime boss!? But you're so nice!"

In response to such an innocent proclamation, Leonardo could only laugh again. "Television always does have it's way with blowing things out of proportions. And to be honest, I have done some…" he looked towards all his Pokemon who Ash noticed were all dark types. "rather dark things. But at the same time, I never really wanted to be the leader in the first place."

Ash took a step back. "You… never did?"

There was a sad smile on the man's face as he looked up to the moon. "Well, they call this place the City of Sin. Growing up here, doesn't leave much chance to chase after your dreams. So when I was given this power, I tried to loosen it a bit." Ash didn't understand, but Leonardo, with that same, hollow smile, gave a wave and started walking away with his Pokemon following him. "Thank you for the walk young man, I hope you do well in your gym battle tomorrow."

Out of everything he knew, he wasn't expecting a leader of organized crime to be so nice. He was warned by the uncle of Emily that there are those people of dangerous intentions, much like the terrorist groups back at Viridian City.

"Hey, Riolu, you can read emotions right? What did you see in Mr. Leonardo's Aura?"

The fighting type closed his eyes and did his impression of a famous statue with a hand beneath his chin. 'It's purple.'

Prince Nidorino turned towards the fighting type.

'Not what I meant. A lot of nice people have blue Aura, people who do more violent and mean things often than not, have red aura. His is pure purple, which means it's like… neither and both.'

'Iiiiii don't geettt itttt.' Jigglypuff dragged his voice along.

Ash looked at the present he was given before the direction of where the man left. "It's getting late, we should head back to the Pokemon Center."

And so the group walked under the sky, where the clouds were returning once more to obscure the moon in the sky-less city.

* * *

Sabrina knew someone was watching her the moment she stepped out of the subway. She could almost feel killing intent. Was it a mobster? They might not know she's partnered up with Team Rocket and Giovanni always treated this place with caution since the 'unofficial' king of the city, Leonardo Capone, was as shrewd as he was old.

But no matter how many minds she scanned, everyone was in their own world, some planning to win big, some who lost just as much as they planned to win, others with thoughts similar to that of a gutter, and over all unpleasant thoughts.

Strangely though, Sabrina felt more at ease here than the other cities. There was something damn honest about how people were in their more unleashed desires here than just being happy-go-lucky elsewhere.

Or maybe, she was just glad that she wasn't the only one messed up in the world.

Still, she couldn't find any trace of her potential stalker, which spoke volumes considering she was the best psychic on the planet—if there were any naysayers, she would gladly like to 'convince' them otherwise.

But the point was if that someone could hide from her, that person must also have highly trained meta human abilities.

Furthermore, with what she learned from the walking, misfortune-incarnate boy, this wasn't a good sign among the bucket list of things that just kept growing.

She would have to keep an eye out the longer she stayed in this casino-riddled, cigarette stinking city. Sabrina went back towards the Pokemon Center and as she closed in, she felt a familiar presence.

Ash Ketchum was finishing talking with Nurse Joy. He turned around and a smile appeared as he waved over towards the purple haired woman.

"Hey Sabrina! I got you something!"

That caught the psychic's attention as the boy with hair like coal brought out a small gift bag for her. As she reached in for the item, her brow raised further up. "Bath Salt?"

"I um… didn't really know what to give you. … Someone said that it was a good gift if you didn't know someone that well." The psychic didn't need her powers to notice the look on the boy's face at the mention of someone, but she was still confused as to…

"Why did you give me this?" She held out the small container that was fancily designed to make people want to buy it more.

"I wanted to give it as a thank you. You've been traveling with me so far, and I wanted to repay you for teaching me how to use psychic powers."

Sabrina looked at the container. For the life of her, she couldn't understand why someone so naive and nice, would willingly give her a gift of his own free will, and express thanks towards her?!

She never! … She never had someone thank her and appreciate her before… did she? Only… a life time ago.

It's been ages since someone showed her appreciation. She had almost no idea how to respond to it.

"Do you, not like it?" Ash started to frown as he saw the look on the taller woman's face.

"No, I do. Thank you." Those last two words came out so foreign to her. She had never said that without haughtiness and/or sarcasm, yet she found herself returning the gratitude as best as she could.

She sighed. Shock was fading and now the only emotion left was annoyance. She didn't like owing anybody, even an oblivious teen. "Now then, who is this person you met? I can tell you're bothered by it."

Ash frowned before he looked around and led the psychic user to a more secluded area.

Sabrina was confused before Ash told his story. She was impressed his control over his powers were getting better (Well he was under her, of course) but it seems like Ash's misfortunate had struck once more, meeting and saving the very man who gives even Giovanni pause.

However, something didn't make sense to her. "Why do you seem so down? I thought you would be glad to help someone in need?"

"Well, it's just… he isn't as bad as I thought people like him would be. And I always though that mobsters would be like those powerful and ruthless people with beards and stuff."

Sabrina's face fell to a frown. She, didn't even try to hide how cold and scary she was and yet this. Damn. Boy. -still has no realization that she's potentially worse than a mobster leader! And he was realizing how two faced the world was through him!?

"Ash. Has no one ever thought you—"

"I was warned! My friend's uncle was always hard on us everyday and warning me and my friends that bad people can seem nice and such. But… he just… looked so sad." The teen expressed as his head fell towards the floor.

Sad huh?

"I've heard of him actually," The teen looked back to her as she folded her arms. "Many things about he was not a man to cross under almost any circumstances. But it's interesting to hear he's not as imposing as the rumors describe."

Ash recalled watching those grittier movies once. It was always so depressing and dreary and he was never interested in them. Maybe they had more inlfuence on life than he thought...

"It's not easy is it?" Sabrina spoke in a tone that was different from her usual strict tone. It almost sounded, soft. "Finding out the world is more than what others tell you?"

"It's just… everyone tells me that bad people are bad, but Mr. Leonardo is a really nice guy... and a bad guy? I don't really get it."

"I'm more surprised your upset over this than everything else in your exciting life." Sabrina felt her lips curl to a small smile. "But it's alright not getting things, Ash. Life is much more complex than it is and that's saying something."

Sabrina stood up from her seat. "Take this as a learning experience, each one has their own interpretation of the world, find your own."

The older psychic left to pick up her room. She wanted to try this bath salt out as soon as possible. However, a few seconds in then she realized something. That boy she was traveling with… since when was she starting to care for anyone but herself?

"What is wrong with me?"

* * *

Day time of Diagon City was intense. If it was cold, it was freezing, if it was hot, it was scorching. There was never an in between. That morning, along with the wind, made everyone feel as if they were slowly be oven roasted.

So when air-condition wind hit his face as he entered into the gym, Ash sighed in relief.

Sabrina was a little more subtle, but she too appreciated the controlled weather in doors.

The gym was unlike the others so far. This one was more rundown, and seemed to have been built from an old boxing ring with those faded, technicolor posters of overdramatic stories plastered all around the brick walls.

It was rather empty, but further down from the old exercise equipment, there was an open field with rings. The place seemed somewhat clean, but the place was dimly lit when outside was like ten time brighter.

"This gym is old." Ash spoke with little filter.

"The building is old. The 'gym' is technically not. It was recognized as an official gym in the years after the legal trainer age was bumped up to 13." Sabrina mentioned as she looked around.

"Sooo where's the gym leader?"

A voice came from behind the two. "Right here."

The two psychics looked back and saw a very familiar face.

"Ah! Mr. Capone!?" Ash pointed towards the old man who was still wearing a suit, hat and holding a cane. "You're also the gym leader!?"

Sabrina looked over to Ash. "You never knew he was the gym leader!?"

"Why, is it obvious?" All battles in her life, whether through words, or Pokemon Battles, all paled in comparison to the battle Sabrina was having with herself at that moment about slapping her forehead after hearing how unbelievably naive her student really was.

Leonardo's laugh filled the air as he walked towards the two with cane first. "You still haven't figured it out? You even said that the gym leader had nothing but dark types, and didn't you notice that all of my Pokemon were dark types?"

Ash froze as he seemed to absorb that information. "You _did_ have all dark types!"

Sabrina lost miserably, and slapped her forehead in pity for the boy she unwittingly took under her wing.

Leonardo's smile was as bright as a sun in the darkly lit building. "And psychics are usually supposed to be considered observant people." He looked over towards Sabrina. "And how are you, Ms. Bellelba?"

The psychic blinked as she looked at the older man. "Have we met before?"

"Not necessarily. I did see you earlier this year at the Gym Leader's Summit."

At the mention of that, Ash's mind metaphorically activated a light bulb. "Wait a second!" Ash pointed to Sabrina. "You're a gym leader too!?"

"You could connect those two facts together, but not when _he_ was the gym leader!?" Sabrina blew up as she pointed towards the old man while glaring at the selective information processing her student was showing.

The mobster boss gave an observant hum which caught the attention of the two psychics. "Well this is a side of you I never would have imagined seeing of you, Ms. Bellelba."

The psychic user glared dangerously towards the man who had this city under his thumb. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"I never would have expected such a standoffish woman to have a strict, but caring older sister side to her."

Sabrina's mind froze. In actuality, she never had _anyone, including herself,_ ever consider of being an older sister figure.

The clack of Leonardo's cane hitting cement brought attention back to him. "Well then young man," he looked towards the boy whose hair was as dark as the night, "Would you like to challenge the gym?"

Ash thought about it for a second before nodding once. "Yes, I challenge the Diagon City Gym!"

"Very well," Leonardo walked towards the battle arena. "How many badges do you have so far?"

"Two." The raven haired boy responded as he walked after him.

The old man absorbed that information silently. "I see. Now then, take your side and I'll take mine."

The two did while Sabrina found herself leaning on the wall on the side.

The mobster gym leader cleared his throat. "Alright here is the rule for this challenge: all of your current party against one of my Pokemon."

"Wait, what?" The boy had his brown eyes widen. "Um did you just say?"

"I know what I said. All of your Pokemon against mine in a versus 1 singles match." The gym leader explained.

"One?" The boy from Pallet Town spoke up.

"Diagon City is a rather remote place. Not many Pokemon live here, even the rock, ground, and steel types are sparse here. As such, I don't have much chance to go out and capture new Pokemon to train. Which is why you will be facing one Pokemon from my _eighth_ badge challenge. A much higher leveled, and more experienced Pokemon I've been training for years. And it's your job to battle him well."

Ash felt intimidated after hearing that. He had to fight a Pokemon meant for an eight badge challenge? He only had two badges!

Yet, despite the obvious fear, he could feel his hands shaking. They weren't just shaking in fear, just like before, he was getting excited! The chance to fight strong Pokemon, the chance to become better than they were before!

The raven haired boy reached for his belt, and threw his first combatant. "I choose you, Jigglypuff!"

'Yoom tah!' The pink puffball cried out as he appeared onto the field.

Leonardo removed his right hand form his cane. As he did, something fell out of his sleeve and fell into his palm, revealing it to be a Poke Ball as it grew into the size of his hand.

"Go, Joe!"

What came from the light was a Sableye wearing a fedora. The ghost and dark type pointed finger guns at his trainer.

'Sup, boss? I seez it's my turn to pass on the wisdom to the young uns." He then fixed his hat after saying this.

"Yes it is. Now remember what we talked about. You're going to have to think on your own for this one." Unlike Ash, it seemed like Leonardo understood his Pokemon without the use of powers. That made the boy curious.

'Aight. Aight!' With two fingers holding on to the edge of his hat, Joe the Sableye, turned towards Jigglypuff and smirked. 'Aww come on, kiddo, I ain't gunna bite like Ol' Tommy over there.'

The Houndoom not too far behind Leonardo growled at the comment.

'I kid, I kid.'

Ash looked at the Sableye once more. Not only was he a dark type, but he was a ghost type as well. His team composed of two normal types and one fighting type, which meant three fourths of his team didn't do well against…

Leonardo smiled as he saw the look on the boy's face. "It seems your observation skills are pointed towards battles than anything else. You basically told me your strategy last night and showed me all your Pokemon."

"Hey wait! That means you planned specifically against my plan!" The boy cried out as he recalled telling Leonardo a majority of his battle plan. "That's not fair!"

"That's my gym's theme, Ash! I build my fights to be unfairly stacked against my challengers as possible!" His eyes sharpened, and the two psychics could feel the pressure behind the old man as he stood much taller than a second ago.

"It's up to you if you can overcome it or not!" Leonardo threw his arm out, the look in his eyes betraying the age of his body as Ash saw the eyes of someone at the peak of his prime. "Joe, begin!"

With speed beyond that which Ash and Sabrina anticipated, Joe the Sableye closed the distance between Jigglypuff with his arms cackling with unstable dark energy.

'FOUL PLAY!' Joe screamed as the attack was unleashed—

* * *

{Author Notes}

Wow that's a total dick move to end on a cliff hanger.

… it's perfect.

Anyway. Hey guys, thanks for all your support and such! I'm glad you're all liking the story so far.

I'm honestly afraid of this chapter, because it introduced one of two OC gym leaders for the Kanto Arc. And I know and understand how much people don't like Ocs. But I hope you all like him. He's just a gymleader.

What do you guys think of him and the new city overall?

Anyway, the next chapter dives into Team Luckless against Joe, the Sableye! Can Ash and co find a way to overcome the gap between them and a high leveled Pokemon?!

Who knows?

Anyway, please support this fic with Favorites, Follows and Reviews! See ya soon!


	13. Ep 13: Four VS One

With speed beyond that which Ash and Sabrina anticipated, Joe the Sableye closed the distance between Jigglypuff with his arms cackling with unstable dark energy.

'FOUL PLAY!' Joe screamed as the attack was unleashed—

"Rollout!" The puffball curled into a ball a second before the attack made contact. Even though dark energy blasted on impact, Jigglypuff shot out like a speeding locomotive. The pink blur hit the wall—the bounced back with the same force he was launched.

Joe saw this and dropped—he dropped onto his own shadow with such speed, his fedora was left in the air as Jigglypuff sped past him.

The pink puffball rolled to a stop and turned around. Then Joe jumped out of his own shadow, reaching for his fedora and placing it back on his head.

'Ain't you clever?'

Joe gave a large grin as he tilted his head towards his opponent.

'Wow friend! you're super strong!' Jigglypuff waved in response.

'Thanks for the compliment. I gotta admit, you're not bad yourself for a youn' un.' The Sableye smirked as he tipped his fedora. 'But nothing personal, I'm gonna beat you up.'

The ghost and dark type crouched, and kicked off with his foot, blasting off with force of an olympic runner.

Ash was prepared this time as he screamed out only two words, "Disarming Voice!"

Jigglypuff opened his maw and fired a sonic boom that had a noticeable pink energy. The move was a Fairy Type move and currently, the only type advantage over the ghost and dark type.

However, Joe only grinned wider when he saw the attack coming his way. He reached for his fedora, and with one more step, he dropped into his shadow like a pitfall. The attack passed over him, but the shadow moved with the same speed until it reached the pink puff's shadow where Joe jumped out of it. While mid air, the dark ghost spun with a reverse roundhouse kick that was empowered with dark energy and smacked Jigglypuff to the side like a rubber ball.

The pink puff bounced considerably before stopping, pouting as he did when he stood back up. It was as threatening as a new born Lilipup with all of his fur fluffed up after having wet hair blow-dried.

Joe snickered and ran right for Jigglypuff once more. The normal and fairy type fired another Disarming Voice, only for Joe to repeat the process and drop to his shadow with Shadow Sneak.

Joe appeared behind Jigglypuff once more and swung his leg—

BAM!

The pink puff twisted faster than anyone expected, and with obvious use of the move Strength, he punched the incoming leg of the Sableye, and to the shock of most, the attack made contact and allowed the ball of air move his other limb to punch the ghost type in the face and send him flying.

(Jigglypuff! How'd you do that?!) Ash mentally screamed at the balloon Pokemon.

(Oh that's easy! If I couldn't hit him and he could hit me, all I had to do was hit him the _moment_ he tries to hit me!)

Ash slowly realized something: ghost Pokemon do have solid forms at times and sometimes when they attack, they put back mass and such to put weight into their attack. This basically meant that there was a point when they have to go back solid to get in a good hit and Jigglypuff was able to abuse that moment of solidarity!

(Whoa! That's clever of you, Jigglypuff!)

'~Yaaay!~ I made a friend proud!' The apple lover cried out and did a happy little jig.

"My my, that is the first time I saw a normal attack make contact with a ghost type." Leonardo called out before looking towards Joe. "I warned you, Joe, not to underestimate this group."

Behind him, Tommy the Houndoom was sniggering with a paw over his maw as if to somehow hide the vindication from his friend's suffering.

The Sableye got back up and fixed the fedora on his head. 'Keep laughing, you Gogoat-horned mutt!' He snapped to his now full on laughing friend. 'Expect excrement in your food later, punk!'

Ash and Jigglypuff tilted as they heard that e-word before Joe turned back to them. 'Alright, kiddoes, let's do this the other way then.'

Joe threw out both his arms which ignited with purple-blue flames and then he pitched them like baseballs, most of them hitting Jigglypuff dead on and igniting into an exploding fire. The rest were still aimed to surround the fairy and normal type.

Jigglypuff screamed, using the attack Echoing Voice to blow away the purple flames. As he did, his own shadow popped up—then Joe stepped out and slammed the pink puffball right between the eyes with his palm with one of those blueish fires.

The pink puff struck back at the same time—only for his fist to pass through Joe's face. 'Ain't falling for that a second time, pinky!' He stepped forward and followed through the palm into his face. A sonic boom was seen as Jigglypuff was knocked back like a cannonball.

"Jigglypuff!" Ash cried out as the pink Pokemon stopped bouncing, and rolled over to see his eyes in swirls.

"That's one down, Ash. you have three left to go." Leonardo stated out loud.

Ash gritted his teeth and returned Jigglypuff. Joe was powerful, not to mention he could take even Jigglypuff's Strength with relative ease. That fire attack was Will-O-Wisp, but even among Professor Oak's Pokemon, none of the attacks he saw back in the ranch moved akin to missiles like Joe's did. Something tickled the teen's mind, telling him there was something more to that uncanny speed of his fire attacks.

Well, at least Jigglypuff was able to get some good hits in, few as they were—!?

A light shined on Joe and soon his noticeable damage was healing instantly. 'There we go. That feels sooo much better!' The ghost and dark type spoke as he stretched his arms like he woke up from bed.

"That was Recover!" Ash cried out.

"You were taking your time with your next Pokemon, so Joe healed himself." Leonardo stated nonchalantly as Jigglypuff's hard work was easily undone.

So adding on to all of the advantages Joe had, he could even heal all damage done to him!? Ash twitched as realization came over him that he and his remaining Pokemon had to deal with something like that!

Still, there had to be something that could work to his advantage... he hoped...

The raven haired teen shook his head and took out his next Poke Ball. "Go, Spearow!" The flying type was brought out and glared down her opponent.

Joe the Sableye waved at her. 'Aww, what's _up_ little birdie? Huh? Huh? Get it?'

'Simpleton! Do you not realize this ceiling is above you?!'

'What? No I—'

'Nay!? You remind me of Slow Spearow in my clan…. he's slow. I apologize for your circumstance.' The usually boastful flying type seemed to humble herself as she seemed to misunderstand the speech of her opponent.

In response to that misunderstanding, Tommy the Houndoom started howling laughter, or he could have been doing a combination of both howling and laughter. It was hard to say but he seemed to be enjoying himself.

Joe's teeth made a nasty sound as they ground together in obvious annoyance towards his teammate. 'Let's just fight now.'

The ghost and dark type then fired another Will-O-Wisp that was much faster than a regular one. Spearow blasted off with Agility, avoiding the flames barely. Joe switched up his tactics and fired bigger, purple flames at the normal and flying type.

But that move no immediate sense to his opponents. The bigger flames were fast, but they were slower than a while ago, and Spearow was able to avoid them very easily.

However, when they hit the ceiling, the shoddy lighting in the room started to flicker with longer periods of darkness with each hit in the ceiling.

Sabrina looked up and then her eyes widened.

Spearow was keeping track of her enemy. However, when the lights flickered off, she felt something off. When they came back on, Joe was no longer in the spot he was previously.

"Spearow, above you!" Ash's voice hit her ears and she glanced up to see a close up fist—

The flying type was knocked down to the ground by Joe who then dove down with dark energy towards the fallen bird.

"Spearow, Mirror Move!" The voice of her trainer made the chieftain's daughter summon a phantom that fired a Will-O-Wisp that was noticeably slower towards the incoming Sableye.

Joe smacked the attack away, but he wasn't able to avoid the direct hit into his stomach by Spearow's Aerial Ace. Showing that she followed up with the attack.

The impact pushed the ghost type off and forced him to land back at the ground.

Ash looked back up, staring at the flickering lights.

Joe cackled as he summoned another Will-O-Wisp in his arms and fired it towards the ceiling. This caused Ash to scream before the attack made contact with the roof. "Spearow, Agility! Move around now!"

"So that explains it." Sabrina spoke out as she looked over towards Leonardo while the fight continued on. "You purposely made the lighting in this gym bad. Whenever the lights flicker, your Pokemon uses Shadow Sneak during the longer periods of darkness to get to the ceiling and attack from above."

"My Pokemon have literal home field advantage," Leonardo spoke out while the lights flickered on and off during their talk. "They use the weak lights in their favor to distract and blind opponents."

"Are you holding back anything?" As the fight went on, there just seemed to be more advantages Leonardo's lone Pokemon had over Ash's part. Sabrina didn't realize she was worried for the boy in her own way.

"I try _not_ to hold back." Leonardo explained as he looked back at the battle. "Because life doesn't. The real choice we have is what we do after."

As he said this, Leonardo looked over towards Ash who had his eyes focused and watching the lights in the room.

The lights started to blur and an instant before the lights went out, "Now, Spearow, Mirror Move!"

And then electric bulbs died out.

When they reappeared, Joe was seen up in the air, with no sign of Spearow. The reversal from before was a complete surprise, and as Joe landed back on the ground, he glanced all around the room to see signs of his opponent.

Leonardo's eyes snapped open. "Joe, behind you!"

Joe looked behind him only to see light—

Then he was smacked some distance back felt a sting in his face.

As he looked back up, he saw what everyone else was seeing: another phantom Sableye that had his same fedora.

'Do you truly believe the same trick would work on us a second time?!' Spearow boldly declared. She flew, and the phantom dragged her into the shadows—revealing she had copied Shadow Sneak and raced after Joe.

'Well this is gonna be fun!' Joe smirked as he too dropped into his own shadow.

The two shadows raced for each other and clashed with the force of two opposing comets. They kept clashing, twisting, and racing all across the building, the ground shaking at the moments of clash.

It was very easy to lose track of who was who because they were just shadow blobs. However, as the fight dragged on, a clear winner was starting to show and beat on the other shadow.

Soon, the lone shadow was kicked out of the ceiling, revealing it to be Spearow that lost the battle of shadows.

Joe jumped out of the wall after her. 'Whoo! That was a great time!'

As he walked over towards the downed flying type, Spearow's eyes snapped open and a burst of feathers exploded around the area.

Sableye couldn't see beyond the feathers and Spearow dashed—was punched in the face knocking her out cold.

'You ain't the only one who learns his lesson.' Joe the Sableye spoke up as the feathered died down.

"Was that Feather Dance?" Leonardo raised his brow. That move might have cut Joe's attack power in half.

Ash sighed and returned Spearow. "You did a great job." As he looked up, he saw Joe healing his wounds from Spearow's fight.

Down two Pokemon, and whatever progress he makes gets undone. There had to be something he could do. At least Spearow cut his attack power; that was something at least.

The trainer from Pallet Town took out his next Poke Ball, "Go Prince Nidorino!"

The purple Pokemon made his appearance as he stared down his opponent.

'You are my opponent? I've seen more threatening reflections than you.' The royal huffed with pride.

Joe smiled and held the tip of his hat to obscure his right jewel eye. 'It ain't about scary, kid, it's about learning lessons. _And you're about to learn a lot._ '

The Sableye stepped back—then dropped into his shadow. Prince Nidorino stood still and looked around.

The lights started to flicker, only revealing the golden glow of Prince Nidorino's Life Orb.

In the moment of darkness, Joe stepped out and rushed for the right side of the Prince Nidorino. He stuck out in the darkness like a sore thumb—why was the light suddenly snuffed out?

A second later, Joe felt like he ran into something.

As the light flickered back on, it was revealed that Joe had just ran into a boulder that shot out between the attacker and Prince Nidorino.

'I learned you're foolish.' The prince declared with pride and showed one of the smuggest of smiles.

"You have quite prideful Pokemon..." Leonardo commented as he watched the battle.

Joe grunted and phased through the rock in an attempt to rush the poison type. However, no sooner than he showed his face out of the rock, A Protect barrier shot out and slammed into Joe then pinned him into the side of the spiked rock, effectively putting the Sableye between a literal rock and a hard place.

This happened for one second before the barrier pushed through, making Joe get crushed through the boulder and making him fall into the ground.

Joe groaned as he got back up, activating Recover early into this third fight. 'Okay, you actually some bite to your bark. I respect that.'

'Respect? Soon, you'll be giving me your admiration!' The poison type narrowed his eyes as he huffed and did a pose that made him look down on his opponent despite being naturally lower.

The golden Life Orb glowed and Nidorino stomped his foot. The floor beneath Joe rocketed upward, sending him flying into the air.

Joe grunted and use Shadow Sneak to get close to the royal, but as soon as he got close again—Bam! Another Protect blasted him away and slammed him into another conveniently placed rock.

Leonardo sighed. "Alright, Joe, hang back a bit. You're actually going to need my help for this."

The Sableye relaxed as he took a step back.

"Will-O-Wisp!" Leonardo cried out as the ghost Pokemon fired an alarming amount of ghost flames in a short amount of time.

Nidorino used Rock Tomb in front of him defensively and the stone took on most of the flames. Joe was then ordered to go to the high point of the rock. Then broke it off and smacked the spike right towards Nidorino.

The proud Prince activated Horn Attack and pierced through the boulder thrown his way. But no sooner than he did, he ended up being surrounded by ghost flames. By instinct, Nidorino activated Protect before the flames could get to him. However the second they dispersed, Joe slammed into the Protect barrier with dark energy accumulating into his foot.

The barrier actually was knocked back down and bounced on the ground. Joe raised both his hands and brought them together with ghost like energy before slamming it into the bubble. The third attack shattered the field. Joe then threw out his arms with exploded into the form of large Shadow Claws.

Joe rushed in while Nidorino was still mid air. However, the light of the orb shined brightly and Prince Nidorino opened his mouth, but this only made Joe dive faster and launch his attack sooner.

The result was a powerful clash of Joe's and Nidorino's attack. The explosion ended and what surrounded the field was a rain of needles.

Prince Nidorino fell to the floor in a smoking heap and it was seen that he was knocked out unconscious from the power of the two attacks clashing.

Ash sighed and recalled his third battler down, which only left Riolu as his last remaining Pokemon.

The Trainer form Pallet town called out his first partner, the fighting type. All the while, Ash found himself looking over towards the ghost and the field scattered with broken rocks and large Poison Sting needles everywhere. Something was forming, but he couldn't quite bring it to the surface of his mind. But it wasn't time for that, there was still something Riolu had that could help them in this situation.

"Riolu, use Foresight!" Ash cried out as Riolu's eyes started glowing.

"Joe, Magic Bounce." In an instant, a magical screen appeared before Riolu could finish his scan.

The light of the fighting type's eyes burst and the little jackal ended up rubbing his eyes after the returned scan.

Ash didn't get it, Riolu launched his attack first, so why was Joe's moves faster than...

Faster? ...Of course!

It finally dawned on Ash why some of Joe's non-combatant attacks were so speedy. He had heard of it before, a special and very rare ability that few Pokemon had. "Wait, does Joe have the Prankster ability!?"

Leonardo was slightly taken by the scream but nodded at the boy's cry. "Why yes, which means whenever someone tries to use Foresight, Joe here can cancel any attempt thrown at him." The mobster gym leader explained while Joe took out his fedora and started spinning it in his hand as he started to use Recover from the previous battle from Nidorino.

Ash had his eyes widened in realization. Riolu didn't have any moves that could hit a ghost type without Foresight!

Leonardo seemed to read his opponent's face like a book and smiled. "Joe, end it!"

The ghost type went off in a vicious assault that Riolu could only defend himself. But it was obvious that he wasn't going to last long.

"Want to call it quits, kid?" Leonardo called out. "This is only going to end one way."

The raven haired boy gripped his fist. His friends all did their best, but it still wasn't enough. Joe was just too experienced and high leveled. Not to mention the fact the gym was made in favor of the dark types.

Maybe… maybe he should give—

'Ash!' Riolu called out, gritting his teeth and supporting his legs to stand. 'What's our next move!?'

Riolu… wasn't giving up. He wasn't giving up! Not one of his Pokemon ever did during the fight, even though they knew Joe was a high leveled Pokemon! And here he was giving up after _they_ never did!? Ash gripped his fist then slapped his face with both of his hands. He screamed out loud, causing everyone, but Riolu, to look at him in surprise.

Ash inhaled deeply and looked towards Leonardo with a smirk.

Leonardo said that the theme of this gym was to show unfair life was. The Gym Leader expressed wanting to be something before he became the man he was today. And he's right. Sometimes, you don't get what you want, but that doesn't mean you should try to go for them and doesn't mean that even if you fail, it'll all go to waste!

His friends and his dreams, they'll help each other, and by Arceus, Ash Ketchum was going to show them all, he **is** going to be a Pokemon Master!

This cry of renewed courage made the trainer's ind work back on overdrive, thinking back to watching the field and realizing that his previous Pokemon didn't just get knocked out for nothing! This needed to be a team effort in order to win, and Riolu needed his help to pull it off!

"Riolu, pick up those spikes left by Prince Nidorino!" Ash shouted as the fighting type avoided an attack by Joe, and did so, grabbing two leftover stingers a little over half his size.

Alone, not one of them stood a chance against Joe and Leonardo. But that was the thing wasn't it? Just like in Cerulean, just like in Mt. Moon…

They were **not** alone!

Joe fired many, speed enhanced Will-O-Wisps at the blue Pokemon.

"Stand your ground and use Quick Attack!"

The paradox of that statement caught the watchers off guard. However, Riolu did stand his ground and his limbs started to move fast. He used the spikes that were obviously laced with Aura to cut and slash through the incoming Will-O-Wisps, effectively showing that the remaining attack was used as pseudo tools to help Ash's last Pokemon!

Joe, while momentarily distracted by the challenger's resourcefulness, knew he needed a different strategy and fired another Will-O-Wisp to the ceiling to make the lights flicker off for a few seconds.

The ghost and dark type raced within the gaps of darkness, but as he readied to strike behind the fighting type, Riolu ducked at the last second and was stabbed in the gut by the two spikes.

Riolu's eyes were glowing as he pushed and stepped forward with the poison sticks. The amount of force in such a small movement was amazing enough to send the Sableye flying back some distance back and caused the higher level Pokemon to slide on the floor to stop the momentum.

The lights flickered back on and Joe threw his hand out to point at Riolu while the other clutched his stomach. 'How'd you know I was there?!'

'I can sense aura?' Riolu tilted his head as he answered honestly. 'Is that so surprising?'

Joe exhaled as he tried to heal himself up. 'Okay then, kid. I just have to—urk!' There was a shock of pale purple that spread all around the ghost type mid heal. He looked down and instantly realized that the two needles that hit him… they poisoned him!

" _Nidorino left the tools for Riolu to stand a chance,_ _Spearow taught me how Joe uses the lights to his advantage_ _while also cutting his attack power in half_ _… and Jigglypuff showed me..._ " Ash thought to himself and felt his heart rate skyrocket. He was using everything his other Pokemon left behind and if even this wasn't enough—no! This had to be it! Forsaking his doubt, Ash ordered Riolu to head in with Quick Attack.

The fighting type raced off, using the two sticks to make another blow onto the ghost. Joe was prepared this time and avoided the stab by ducking and trying to sweep kick the blue Pokemon. Riolu was far more capable in close combat, jumping over it and swinging both temporary staves over his head to bring them down the low ghost and dark type. The gym Pokemon had quick reflexes and dropped into his shadow before the attacks could make contact, but the attack did almost hit him. Joe raced back to the shadow of Riolu and tried to strike his back, but Riolu blocked a Shadow Claw by twisting and using his makeshift weapon to clash and hold the attack.

The two's dance of combat continued, with each attack coming closer and closer to contact for both sides.

Leonardo, for the first time in this fight, was starting to get tense. "Joe, break those sticks! It's the only thing letting him hit you!" Leonardo cried out.

Joe exerted more energy into his Shadow Claws and swiped at Riolu in such a way it forced him back. However, the needles he was using did get caught by the attack and were shattered into pieces afterward.

Joe rushed in again. 'Goodnight, kid!' He threw his Shadow Claw and at the last second—

" _And Jigglypuff showed me that Joe can't always defend fr_ _o_ _m last second moves._ "

Riolu's palm glowed and smashed right into Joe's Shadow Claw, pushing it back. The surprise of such a thing let the ghost type's guard down and allowed Riolu to smash another force palm right into the chest of the Sableye.

"What!? How did you hit—" Leonardo stopped mis sentence when he saw the glowing eyes of the fighting type. He realized that Riolu was waiting for Joe to make a move, so he could activate Foresight before he could counter with Magic Bounce!

"Now Riolu! Don't let up for a second!" Ash punched the air hard.

The fighting type screamed as he unlashed a flurry of Force Palm attacks that connected into the Sabeleye. Joe seemed to take in some of the hits as he also tried to counter. However, Riolu was just naturally better at close combat, and even though he took some hits, it didn't do much in deterring the assault.

"Joe, run! You can't beat him close qaurters!" Leonardo called out.

The ghost and dark type stepped back and dropped into his—Riolu dove in, grabbed on to Joe's arm and lifted him up. In that moment, the fighting type gathered energy into his foot and slammed his foot into the bottom jaw of Joe.

Joe realized he couldn't escape anymore and ended up unleashing his power to out attack Riolu. However, despite getting more hits in, and some good blows, Riolu was still fighting and hitting back harder.

The flurry of palms increased until with one solid slap to the face, Joe staggered backwards and seemed to be near collapsing.

A blue light gathered around Riolu's palm before he stepped forward and both he and Ash **screamed** as the attack was pushed right into the stomach of Joe once more.

The attack was a direct hit and the result was an explosion where out of the clouds, Joe shot off and fell into the ground, his hat rolling off his head and swirls on his eyes.

...

...

"W-We won! Riolu, we did it! We won!" Ash, releasing a breathe he didn't know he was holding, cheered then ran up to his fighting type.

'Yay! Everything hurts!' The little Pokemon cried out before he was picked up and hugged by Ash—only to yelp in pain after the hug.

Leonardo returned Joe and walked up to the boy and Riolu. "Well that was… something." He fished for his pockets and tossed something towards the boy like a flipped coin.

The boy from pallet town caught the object, revealing it to be a circular badge that had a black moon and a silver sky.

"That's the Twilight Badge, proof that you have won the challenge here in Diagon City. Congratulations my boy, you've earned it."

The boy took the badge and a smile was obviously on his face, but the smile soon faded and he looked back up to the mobster. "Mr. Capone? You told me that you had a dream before, what was it?"

The old man seemed to be caught surprised by the question. The mobster exhaled once before he looked back to the boy and gave an honest answer. "When I was your age, I wanted to be an astronaut and explore beyond the stars. It was all I could ever think about. But... considering where I was, and who my family was, I never got the chance to pursue my dream. I still think about it to this day, what my life could have been if I choose differently."

The old man made a motion towards the old building they were in. "In a sense, despite being the 'king' of this city, it also acts like a prison." He looked over to Ash with one of the saddest smiles the teen had ever seen on the melancholic mafia leader. "Which is why I started this gym in a sense. It could bring the outside world to this isolated city, if one couldn't leave it as easily."

Ash seemed to react to that information like a sponge, but then he opened his mouth. "Why don't you still try and chase it?"

The sentence was a simple one, but it caught Leonardo and Sabrina off guard as they both turned to Ash.

"I mean, can't you join the space program from Mossdeep City in Hoenn? You may not be an astronaut, but I bet they can get you hooked up with a lot of cool space stuff! Professor Oak told me all about it and one time borrowed a Lunatone from their space center so we could learn more about potential Pokémon from space! It was so cool!" The teen gushed as he explained the memory but calmed down a bit. "I'm not really smart even though I try to be. But my mom once told me that dreams don't really go anywhere while chasing them, they're just always waiting for you."

Silence filled the old building before the mobster broke out the largest smile that looked like it belonged more on a child than it did an old, bitter man.

"Your mother sounds very wise, young man."

Ash nodded. "My mom said she got it from my dad. She said it was one of his favorite phrases he read from a fortune cookie."

"Well then," The two older gym leaders noticed the past tense usage for the word, father, but made no effort to mention it further. "Allow me to repeat it before we get too off tangent: congratulations, Ash Ketchum, for winning the Twilight badge."

The raven haired teen smiled and looked back at the shiny badge. Ash threw his hand with the badge up, proud to earn such a thing after a hard fought—"Wait! I need to heal the others! They gotta see this! Thanks Mr. Leonardo!" Ash waved goodbye as he bolted out the gym door without listening to another word.

As he did, Leonardo had a huge smile on his face even when he turned to Sabrina.

The psychic user sighed. "There he goes again, running off ahead without care. He truly does need to know how to calm down."

"True. But let him be himself for now, he will learn when he learns." The old godfather spoke out cryptically before turning towards the psychic user with a mischievous smirk. "Did you know he was the first to win that challenge?"

As soon as the message entered into her brain, the woman replayed it in her mind, only to be even more confused when she heard it.

"What? Ash was the only one to get your badge?"

"No no," Leonardo shook his head. "Because of how I stacked the odds against younger challengers, you get the badge if you can do the following: make me command my Pokemon against you, _or_ never give up even when you lose totally. Ash is the very first one to actually win against this challenge designed to be unwinnable."

The tone in his voice was one of wonder and interest. It was hard not to be if a young, new trainer just did the impossible.

"Wait, what about his friends from his hometown?" Sabrina asked the old man. From what Ash told her, it was implied his friends already challenged the gym and got their badges. If what the Diagon City Gym Leader was true, then wouldn't that mean...?

Leonardo scratched his face. "Either I'm getting older, or the next generation is getting stupidly strong. The other three had _draws_ with whatever Pokemon I sent at them. They were able to knock out my main party at their last Pokemon each time. I thought for sure I could finally beat one of them, but as you can see it was the complete opposite."

Wait, the other three had ties with that challenge?! Sabrina knew Ash had a talent for battling, but his friends did as well?

"Look out for those kids in case you battle them—that does remind me, I'm surprised your out of your city during League Period." The mobster asked politely.

"Somethings came up, I needed to look into some business."

"From Giovanni?"

Sabrina's entire body shifted into tension, not that she showed that as she looked back towards the still smiling mobster.

"You'll have to forgive me for the reception earlier last night. I had found out that a psychic was coming to my turf, and I wanted to see what reason they would come here."

"… That was one of your men? How did he evade..." The psychic user started to stand up straight. She wasn't aware that Leonardo had some meta human abilities at his disposal, or even access to nullifying other meta human powers.

"You don't live years with dark types without learning a few tricks." Tommy the Houndoom came up to the mobster for Leonardo to pet on his head. "Some of those tricks can even stop a psychic's power."

The tension in the air was thick— until mobster gave a laugh as soothing as a cool breeze. "Relax. I just wanted to know why you were here when I made sure Giovanni stopped sending goons over to this place." He looked over towards Sabrina. "Imagine my surprise when you were just following a fun kid around."

Sabrina was still wary, Leonardo was proving himself to be a more dangerous man than she heard about, and even then that was saying something. She was truly starting to see why Diagon City seemed so out of reach for Team Rocket if he was always in charge.

"So, what happens now?" The psychic user still remained tense, choosing not to say much about her reasons or affiliations.

"That… depends on you. At first I thought you were sizing him up to be one of Giovani's new puppets, but I was genuinely surprised that the kid is bringing out something in you of all people: your empathy." Lenoardo turned and started walking towards the other side of the gym. "I wasn't lying in saying that kid is interesting. And that's just more than his battle skills."

The old mobster suddenly stopped and turned towards the other gym leader. "By the way, did you know that the S.S. Anne is docking by the Diagon Port tomorrow? The port is a shuttle ride down and much shorter than any of the trains back to Cerulean. You should tell Ash about it cause that boat ride is much faster travel to Vermillion City than walking by land." He tossed his head as if remembering a single musical note, "Honestly, I wanna see how that Surge fellow will react to that kid."

And with that last comment, the mobster left his own gym, leaving Sabrina to think about how Ash _was_ starting to change her.

Was it for better? Or for worse?

The lights of the gym flickered… and then darkness returned to the building.

* * *

 **+Author Notes+**

 **So, what did you guys think about this 4 VS 1 Gym battle? I worked hard to make sure it was something just beyond calling out the names of attacks.**

 **I talked with a friend and agreed that just following the game format of battles was boring to read. The anime is better, but those are visual mediums, and Fanfiction are text.**

 **Thankfully, a certain anime with currently 5 anime parts and almost nine manga sagas showed the potential in how to make exciting battles even without losing interest even when translated back to text.**

 **Segway here.**

 **I'm kinda of excited for the next chapter. It's another fun one and it's on a boat.**

 **A. Boat.**

 **You know another name for boat?**

 **Ship.**

 **Mwa-MWAHAHAHAHA!**

 **See ya guys soon. Support this fic with follows, favorites and reviews, please!**


	14. Ep 14: Ships Sail or Sink

'Oooooh! It's so...'

Ash waited for Riolu to finish his sentence, but after a few seconds, it seemed like the little fighting type just had no words to describe the sight before him.

To be fair, Ash had never seen it outside of a TV show—which Sabrina was warning him that was never a good source of information at all.

That was nice to know actually, considering most large cruise ships he sees in media sink horribly.

I mean, what were the chances of that happening?

The teen froze mid thought as he recalled crashing and ridding a space ship and meeting two legendaries in the same month have much higher chances of not happening than a boat crashing.

… And both events did happen to him.

Huh… maybe he should look into catching a water Pokemon soon.

Meanwhile, not too far from the trainer and his Riolu, a familiar trio was walking up to the crowd in cue to enter into the ship.

"There seems to be a lot of people in line." A familiar boy with dark green hair, accompanied by a Lucario spoke out as he viewed the large crowd of people waiting for the SS. Anne to open up.

A peppy and also familiar brunette stretched out her hands. "Man, I can't believe we have to wait that long? At least we're finally out of Diagon City. It was so hard to breathe there."

A silver haired, pony-tailed girl walked up after the two. "It wasn't that bad, Verity." The girl from Pallet Town had slightly flushed cheeks before sighing. "I almost didn't get my badge here."

Verity huffed and put her hand on her shoulder. "That old man was a hack! Using that high-leveled Weavile against you like that!"

"I on the other hand, find it outstanding that he could use faulty maintenance so effectively in combat. It truly shows the difference in experience at how something so insignificant can be used in a fight like that." The usually stoic Sorrel seemed to be in awe at the mastery of the Gym Leader of Diagon City.

"Sorrel, not helping." Verity looked towards the male of their group.

The girl from Pallet sighed before putting a hand close to her chest. "No, Verity, Sorrel has a point. Mr. Capone really showed me how strong Gym Leaders really are." She pumped herself up as she brought up her hand and put it into a fist. "It means I need to train more."

"Ahh? You can do that later! Don't you know that the S.S. Anne is a Luxury Cruise Ship?! It's famous even from other Regions! I can't wait to see what kind of cuisine they have!"

Mary's mood also lifted up. "Oh that reminds me, I should look up their brochure! I want to see what kind of activities and sights we'll be passing by! We're going to have so much fun!"

While she said this, at the very front of the line was a very specific red head who seemed as excited as a dead Raticate.

"Are you, sure about this, Sola?" The red haired girl looked towards the other one who seemed to be on the opposite emotional spectrum, and was almost bouncing to mitigate the energy and excitement she had for this..

"Come on, Emily! I've never been on a boat before! Or anywhere near the ocean! This could be a fun experience!" The blonde, stylish girl cried out while her Togepi, Ki, agreed with her.

"I mean," The girl wearing a beret began to say, "What's the worse that can happen?"

At that moment, Ash Ketchum sneezed.

* * *

'Wow!' Riolu and all the other Pokemon of Ash Ketchum, including the trainer himself, cooed in awe as they witnessed no matter how far they viewed, there was nothing but water that seemed to blend in with the horizon.

They were currently on what was called the forecastle deck, near the very point of the cruise ship. It wasn't like the large, main deck which was filled with snack bars, pools, and even water park and other fun activities like wall climbing and hook rides which rode for miles.

He was motioned there 'subtly' by Sabrina as her weariness didn't want the walking misfortune near the large amount of people in the cruise ship. It totally and wasn't at all because she was interested in a sunrise smoothie the cruise was complimented for and wanted to enjoy it peacefully.

But Ash was just as excited being on a cruise for the first time and even coming out towards here was just as fun as all those other things on the upper main deck.

The trainer and his Pokemon could just stare into the sea for the entire ride over…

And then the boy was spotted by someone.

"Ash?"

Not that he noticed the way he was being noticed. Yet others noticed the way he didn't notice being noticed.

"Oooo?" The silver haired girl could feel the dread crunch into her heart like fangs on a basketball. "Isn't that your boyfriend?!"

"He'sNotMyBOYFRIEND!" No one could hear the gap of air between those string of rushed words as the girl screamed that towards her two friends. Luckily, the strong winds made her voice die out and only be heard by those two.

Mary coughed into her mouth, though it did little to distract her travel companions from the fact her cheeks were the same shade of ruby red as her eyes. "We're just friends."

"Okay then, why don't you say hi to him?" Verity spoke out and elbowed into Sorrel, who was wisely staying out of this by not even choosing to acknowledge the situation in front of him.

The girl huffed and pouted which was as threatening as a newborn Pichu. "I will! I will go up to my friend and do with mundane pleasantries!"

Sorrel opened his mouth to correct that fact no one in the modern age would ever phrase it like that, but wisely once more decided not to.

Maria Indra Sundance then turned and walked towards the boy with all the determination of a soldier on a mission.

She marched on with purpose, moving closer towards the easy going, raven haired boy still staring into the ocean.

She could do this obviously. Verity was just being silly, there was nothing going on between her and…

and…

Ash Ketchum grinned towards his Pokemon hanging on the rails. The direction of the grin also made it so that Mary could easily see it from where she was.

Twas at that moment, her treacherous heartbeat started to beat faster after monetarily stopping at the sight.

(Get it together, girl!) Mary told herself as she stepped forward—

Ash Ketchum laughed from where he was, and Mary swore she saw dimples on his face.

At that moment, her heart and brain turned against her, losing all ounce of previous conviction. Yet the teenage girl swallowed her spit and continued her step…

back towards her friends.

"He seems busy, I can just say hello later." The meekness in her voice did not help her that moment, along with the fact she found herself starring at the wooden floor as if it was done by an ancient artist of long passed eras.

Verity inhaled air— "Don't." Sorrel spoke out fast.

"I was just going to say that was both adorable but sad. Is there a word for combining those two?"

"Perhaps not in this language." Sorrel absentmindedly responded.

Mary buried her face into her hands. "Kimf m ow." despite being muffled greatly, her two travel companions could hear the 'kill me now' she whispered into her palms. Heck, they could feel it.

"Oh you poor thing, shed no more tears." Mary wasn't actually crying but Verity didn't hesitate to pull the girl into a hug. "Lady Verity will help you in your time of need."

"Verity—"

"Hush, Sorrel. A child needs consoling." The brunette interrupted as she half pretended to be a caring person.

Mary just groaned but accepted the hug, unable to do much of anything at this moment.

"Verity—"

"Don't worry, Mary!" The brunette spoke out again, interrupting her more stoic friend who was looking towards the distance. "Next time, we'll all go together and this time, I won't tease you."

Mary looked up from her self made cage. "You won't?"

"Verity? Mary? I—"

Unfortunately for the stoic boy, he was ignored again as Verity kept talking again. "As fun as it is, you're my friend and I value our time together." The girl put her hands firmly onto the shoulders of the silver haired girl. "Let's all go together and you can say hello normally."

The girl from pallet town brightened up after hearing that. "Really?"

Verity nodded in response to the girl's hope.

Yet Sorrel shot it down as fast as it rose. "Ash is talking with someone else."

The two girls snapped their necks towards where the raven haired boy and his Pokémon were originally. Now instead of looking towards the ocean, the teenage boy was smiling and talking to a straight haired blonde girl wearing a pink beret that was just very pleasing to look at.

The girl, while holding a Togepi in her arms pointed towards the inside of the boat where the teen simply nodded and walked along with her back towards inside the ship.

Mary could only gape. "W-Who was that?" She never saw that girl before, and Ash easily went along with her?

"I don't know, but she approached Ash while you two were talking and the two seemed to know each other." Sorrel answered with the same flat tone he usually showed.

Verity snapped her attention towards their male friend. "Why didn't you say so sooner?!" She screamed, completely and utterly unaware he tried to do on multiple occasions before.

The silver haired girl slumped. "I'm going to my bedroom, and..."

She didn't even try or want to finish that sentence as she turned away and walked away with all the energy of a Slakoth with none of it's joy.

As soon as the poor girl was out of their sights, Verity grabbed onto Sorrel's collar with grip much like a wrestler. "Sorrel! We need to follow them!"

"I have a bad feeling I know where this is going." The boy's eyes narrowed towards no one in particular.

"We can't let this skank encroach into Mary's crush!"

"At least I'm impressed by the above average vocabulary my friends are using. That's nice." If Verity was ignoring him, he could somewhat do the same.

However, Verity went off, dragging a very disinterested Sorrel after the two. It seemed like this would be a long day.

Unbeknownst to the two from Team Mystic, they captured the attention of a red haired girl also from Pallet Town that was just about to go after her childhood friend and her travel companion.

"Who are they? And why are they following Sola? ... No... they couldn't be?" Emily eyes narrowed, her hands reached her pockets as she stalked after her friend's stalkers.

* * *

Sabrina could get used to this. These drinks were to kill for! Hmm, now that she thought about it, has she killed for less?

At first, the idea of being in a crowded luxury cruise was one of annoyance, but she had to admit, the drinks and food have convinced her otherwise with the way they made her taste buds reach tropical bliss.

A few days surrounded by people she didn't like could be tolerated if the food was good.

"Another one!" Sabrina's attention was dragged through the floor and tossed back into reality when she heard a voice near her. To her surprise, it was a girl seemingly around Ash's age and who was drinking tropical juices from the bar like some man on death row.

"Miss, please. I know none of the drinks have alcohol but this is just—"

"Gimme another Strawberry Sunrise! I'm paying you!" The girl cried as she slammed down another bill into the counter.

Sabrina could feel how bad the loser of a girl was acting out beside her and looked over towards the man behind the counter. After meeting eyes, the man behind the bar gave up and started to make another drink to add to the pile of empty glasses next to the girl.

The psychic gym leader raised her brow at the miserable girl trying to get drunk off non-alcoholic drinks. It was almost as naive as a certain someone she knew.

The older woman sighed. "Alright, what's wrong?"

The girl beside her sniffed. "W-What?"

"The drinks are good, but you're ruining the relaxing atmosphere." And her relative times of peace when away from the walking misfortune that was her new student. "So what's got you drinking your sorrows away when you're obviously too young to know how to do that?"

The girl seemed conflicted, seemingly wrestling with the fact if she should share or not.

Sabrina just narrowed her deadpan look, suggesting that there was no point in denying it now, this made the girl relent. "T-There's… this boy I like."

Of course. Sabrina fought the urge to roll her eyes and gag at the same time. Instead she inhaled deeply through her nose. "You don't need to say more." She didn't even want to read her mind for this. "Him being a jerk?"

"Nononono!" The girl quickly corrected. "He's actually my best friend! And I just...I just… I'm just an idiot!" The drink was placed in front of the girl and she didn't even savor the drink, only chugging it like spent athletes and their energy drinks.

Sabrina had an even worse time trying not to gag at how she was looking at a living romantic cliché.

"Blaming anything, including yourself, does nothing. Why do you like this boy enough to blame yourself instead of him?"

The girl froze after hearing that. Ironically, while Sabrina meant some ill will towards this crush, the girl actually calmed down and had this serene smile appear on her face, which caught the older woman in surprise at how pure it was.

The girl motioned to gingerly hold the back tip of her hair and she had a nostalgic smile. "I was born with a rather weird hair color—it was even different than both of my parents who were brunettes, as you can plainly see: must have been because of some deep recessive gene in my parent's line. But other kids used to make fun of my hair color, which made me hate my hair color. My mother thought I was too young to dye my hair, so I had a very miserable kindergarten."

Sabrina walked right into this: a back story dump. Now all she could do was listen and pretend to care, though nowadays she found it much easier to pretend than she previously thought.

"My parents moved from Kalos to Pallet Town not long after, and I wore a hat every time I went out. In my first grade while in recess, a strong gust of wind knocked away my hat, showing my hair color. So I panicked, but there was a kid who told me that my hair was the coolest thing he'd ever seen. It was the first time genuinely complimented my hair."

Oh loners, how easy it is to win their hearts with kindness. "I see, he's the same one isn't he?" Sabrina then drank from her drink.

"Yeah, and we became friends ever since, but..."

"He might not feel the same way as you to him." Oh Arceus, why was this so predictable? She wasn't even using her powers for this.

The girl remained silent after that statement. While Sabrina appreciated the lack of talking, looking at the girl frown made her think of a certain student of hers.

"If your expecting any advise to give, I don't have any, girl." Sabrina found herself speaking. "I don't even think kids as young as you should be doing more than crushing on people."

"B-But—"

Sabrina put down her empty glass, stopping any rebuttal from the girl. "You two are friends still, aren't you? Just enjoy and let time decide if those feelings change on either side."

The psychic user didn't care much after that, but the girl's look seemed to be gaining courage. "Y-You're right! I'm still his friend and I do like being his friend! But he's also one of my rivals in becoming a Pokemon Master, and I can't let even him stand in my way!"

Sabrina asked for a refill of her drink then turned to the girl. "I see, then what are you going to do?"

The girl had a much more confident smile. "I'm still going to be his friend, and trust your words. I mean, I know he's friendly, so maybe I just misunderstood him with another girl!"

"What?" Sabrina looked at the silver haired girl. "Hey, girlie that's a different thing all together—"

The silver haired girl seemed to be in her own world as she stood up, looking more determined than before. "This time, I'll just walk up to him and say hello to Ash!"

That last word made every single brain cell in the psychic's head freeze. "Ash?"

The girl turned to her and hurriedly gave a polite bow. "Thank you so much! I feel better than I did a while ago! This time for sure I won't back down!"

And the girl left, leaving a still shocked Sabrina who now had her eye lids twitching in a way that could have been mistaken for someone in the middle of seizure.

"… Ash?"

The bar attendant smiled after seeing the girl go and put Sabrina's drink down. "Hey, good job with that girl. I usually am bad with people going on drinking binges."

The glass of Sabrina's drink shattered mysteriously, causing the employee to look over towards the purple haired woman.

"I want a tab. **Now**."

* * *

'Weeee!' Ki, the Togepi cried out as Ash played with her by tossing her up into the air before catching him back down on the bench he and Sola were sitting under inside the Mall area of the S.S. Anne.

Sola giggled at the sight. "I've never seen Ki like someone else so much, I'm almost jealous."

"I'm just doing what he wanted to do." The raven haired teen gave the laughing egg Pokemon back to the girl. "You know I never got to ask, how did you and Emily meet?"

Sola's happy mood dropped for a second before she answered, "Our families knew each other, but I came to Kanto from Si—Alamia a week before she got her first Pokemon and we met and decided to travel together at Viridian City."

"Oh that's cool. Emily's uncle was always this big and tough guy, he reminded me a lot about those general old guys you see in the movies."

Sola gave another laugh at that. "He's nothing like that, I promise. Mr. Apollo is a nice man."

Ash groaned. "Well, he was our gym teacher ever since second grade. And he made us run so many laps around the town and his exercises got much worse when we became assistants of Professor Oak." However, the raven haired boy lightened up and punched the air a bit. "Still, it was awesome to learn a bunch of self defense techniques! Emily was always the scariest fighter out of all us." The raven haired boy paused and shivered, causing Sola to laugh once more.

"I find Emily charming," Ash raised his brow towards Sola after she said that. "No she is! Haven't you noticed she doesn't really understand expressions?"

Ash blinked before a smile appeared on his face. "Oh yeah! I remember one time Gary spoke about jokes flying over her head, and she actually looked up! It's kinda weird that sometimes she's serious and sometimes she doesn't know stuff other people all know..."

Meanwhile, Verity was pouting hard and glaring towards the fake blonde that was currently laughing and smiling.

"You know, a wise man once said, hatred is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die." Sorrel tried to say from behind the corner wall both he and Verity were hiding.

"Look at them! Sitting under a palm tree! There's a song about this, Sorrel! We need to prevent the spelling part of that song from happening! Quick, Sorrel, use your Lucario to attack them!"

The green haired boy folded his arms while still looking as stoic as ever. "I'm just going to let you reflect about what you just asked me to do."

"I knew it!"

From behind the two, a new, more punk-dressed girl with red hair pointed at the two. "Who sent the two of you!? And why are you after Sola!?"

"Sola!? Is that her name!?" Verity had the wrong reaction as she pointed towards Emily.

Sorrel was about to speak out at how Verity was getting too carried away, but then he paled when he noticed the look on the stranger's face look almost wrathful.

The red haired girl threw out her Pokemon, a Dratini, an Ivysaur, a Staravia, and a Poliwirl. "Everyone, attack!"

Some distance away, Mary was feeling pumped, telling her self over and over she could do it. She could just talk to her crush and not act like a total spaz. She won't blow up a second time!

Boom!

Not like that—the girl blinked and looked to see a dust storm. To her surprise, she saw a very, very familiar and peppy brunette jump out with her Pokemon: a Piplup, a Glameow, and a Mothim.

"Listen here, vile man-stealer!" To the horror of Mary, the over the top voice only confirmed her worst nightmare, "You and the she-witch will not stand in the way of Mary's happiness!"

Annndddd death suddenly didn't seem like the worst thing in the world. "Verity!?" Mary shrieked and ran towards her friend. "What are you saying and doing?!"

As the clouds settled, the red haired girl walked out and instantly locked eyes with the other girl beside her target. "Mary?"

"Emily?" The other girl from Pallet Town repeated with the same tone.

"Emily? Mary?" The two girls, Verity, and a Sorrel who wisely stepped far away as possible, looked over to see Ash with Sola beside him. "What are you guys doing here?"

* * *

"I want to dieeeeeeeeeee." The silver haired girl supposed it was an upgrade from feeling flustered in front of her crush, to feeling embarrassed at how carried away her friend got.

"Hehe," Verity rubbed the back of her head as they all sat down on a table in a food court. "Sorry about that, Mary, I got too carried away."

"You did." Sorrel quickly added in.

"I'm sorry, I just assumed… I apologize for any inconvenience." To those that didn't know her, it was interesting to see a girl themed around strength show a moment of openness.

"I didn't know you guys were also onboard. I had a feeling Emily was when I saw Sola, but I didn't know about Mary and the others." Ash began as he slid the cheese pizza towards Riolu who started chomping down on the heavenly meal.

"I actually saw you earlier, I just didn't get a chance to say hi." The silver haired girl responded.

"Oh really? Hey, I'm never to busy for my friends." The raven haired boy easily answered.

"… Yeah. I'll keep that in mind next time." Emily and Verity, once at each other's throats not to long ago at a misunderstanding, were staring in disbelief at the silver haired girl that easily got flustered by compliments, was now more calm and collected.

"So," Ash went on, not seemingly noticing the change. "How did you all come here?"

Emily leaned back into her seat. "It was a suggestion from the Diagon City Gym Leader, but a boat ride was cheaper and faster than traveling back to land."

"That was the same for me." Ash seemed to have another thought come up. "I wonder if we're going to meet anyone else in here."

"I doubt it." "It's unlikely." "We're all pretty far from people and places we know." Was what many of the five other teens spoke up on.

However, there was one thing that many of them overlooked: Ash Ketchum and his flippant luck. The Raven haired teen didn't know that there was someone running up behind him.

"Ash! Ash!"

The six teens turned to the sound of the voice that was heading their way.

The raven haired boy's eyes widened, he stood up from his seat quickly as he saw the person running up to him.

"Molly!?"

A little girl dressed in blue and white clothes with curly, honey brown hair that had a blue bow in it, and looked no older than eight ran up to the teen to hug him. The raven haired boy was surprised but returned the hug towards the girl.

"Molly?!" "Molly?" Both Mary and Emily shouted out the name respectively.

The three other friends looked surprised. "Who is she?" Vertiy asked.

Ash turned around. "We're friends of the people from Pallet Town. One of us moved there some time back." Though, it wasn't his voice that just answered them.

Mary gasped as she pointed to one of the two men. "Dad!?"

* * *

+Author Notes+

Just another short and easy going chapter.

I kinda just wanted some silliness and an excuse to make Sabrina start wanting to binge drink.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the story.

Thanks so much and be sure to support the story.


	15. Ep 15: Music of Ancients

**A/N:** Sorry this took so long, I just… yeah. I don't really have an excuse.

* * *

"Dad!?" Mary stood up and pointed towards an athletically muscular looking man with dark brown hair and wearing glasses over brown eyes. He along with the other man, who had hair similarly styled like Entei's mane, were both wearing safari adventure clothes.

"Sweetie!" You could tell he was a father by the smile on his face, and with how he scooped the girl up and gave her a Ursaring hug, much to the squeamish girl's dilemma.

Ash on the other hand, turned towards the other man with a fair amount of surprise, "Mr. Hale? You're here too?"

The man with hair similarly styled to that of an Entei gave a hearty laugh. "Ash, please, you can call me Spencer. I'm surprised to see nearly all of you here as well."

"Who are these guys?" Verity asked with obvious confusion as both Ash and Mary were talking towards the two men.

Emily looked towards the reaming three and explained. "As Mary just said, the one with glasses is her father, Professor Drando Sundance and his partner and best friend, Mr. Spencer Hale, the two are archeologists who travel around the world and Molly over there is Mr. Hale's kid."

"I feel like there's more to that summary." Sorrel noted with a raised brow.

"The things I know are better explained by those two than me."

As Emily said this, Mr. Sundance turned over and waved at the others, signaling them all to not be shy and come and meet with them. "Emily, how are you doing? You've grown a lot since I last saw you all. I see Gary is missing from your group."

"He's doing his own thing here and there." Emily stood up from her seat before everyone got reacquainted with each other.

"Wow," Molly, the little blonde girl, cooed when she saw Ash's Riolu. "You have a Pokemon now Ash?"

"Yep, this is Riolu, a great friend of mine." At the teen's introduction, his fighting type looked back to Ash.

'I like her Aura, it's fuzzy.' The fighting type was then hugged by Molly, who squealed in delight touching the soft and small creature.

Verity, Sorrel, and Sola moved closer towards the two archeologists. Verity asked, "So, you're Mary's dad?"

"Yep! And you must be her traveling companions! I'm so glad she was able to find some!" Despite his burly appearance, the man seemed to be tearing up at the thought. "She's grown so much from the little girl who practically held on to the house door like a life line when we were trying to bring her to pre-school!"

"DAD!" Mary shrieked at the top of her lungs. Obviously she didn't want any part of her past revealed to her friends through her father.

"Aww," Verity cooed before smirking and elbowing Sorrel, her more stoic friend understanding this was more ammo for teasing Mary later. "So if you two are archeologists, what are you two doing on a cruise ship?"

Spencer Hale was the first to talk about it. "The cruise will stop by the Isle of Masiko and that's where Drando and I are to visit. They say they stumbled on to a new undiscovered ruins of an unknown old culture."

"That sounds interesting." For the first time in a while, the group of teens looked to Sorrel who actually expressed a genuine emotion towards that new fact.

Mary's father seemed to brighten up at the words of the stoic teen. "Hey! Why don't you kids come along? We're going to be with an excavation team and you guys can keep anything you find as long as you show us! We're even told there might be some fossils you guys can find and revitalize!"

That seemed to catch everyone's attention before they all started rapidly firing questions as to if they could really do such a thing, or if they are allowed to, or even ask more details about the event.

Spencer looked over to the smiling man and folded his arms. "You do realize that you're going to have to do all the paper work required to have everyone come along with us, right?"

The taller man seemed to wince, like being hit by a super effective hit and turned back to the man with Entei styled hair. "Uhh, right, forgot about that. Sooo… mind helping out with that?"

Spencer Hale shook his head slowly.

"Huh," Drando looked at the excited look on all the teens faces, along with Molly. Instead of seeing children, he saw piles of paper work in their place. "Man, what I could give to curse right about now."

* * *

"So when the boat stops at Masiko Isle, I'm gonna go excavating with my friend's dad. You wanna come?"

Sabrina supposed she could say no, but what else could she do? Be away from Ash and later find out how much he screwed up again while she was gone? Though the last time she did the opposite, she couldn't even get herself out of the trouble the boy had caused.

Damned if she did and damned if she didn't. Still, she supposed she could use an excuse to see more exotic areas before it exploded or something.

Sabrina gave a small nod before continuing to read a book she had found.

"Cool!" Ash then turned around towards the TV of the room they were given. "Now, let's watch some cool movies!"

As he put it on for his Pokemon, the television opened up.

"~ _V_ _ocal percussion on a whole nother level coming from my mind!_ ~"

"Oooh!" Ash and all of his Pokemon seemed greatly hooked as the first thing they saw was a very colorful image of strange men dancing.

Sabrina inwardly lurched. She would rather be in a life or death situation than where she was currently.

* * *

The Isle of Masiko was located towards the northeastern lands of Kanto. In that isle, traces of civilizations long lost to time are marked by ancient ruins and buildings from a bygone era.

"Wow that's a lot of old rocks!" So leave it to Ash Ketchum, 13 teen year old, and soon-to-be-Pokemon Master to make it sound more mundane than it actually is.

"Yep!" One of the two adult archeologists began before walking ahead to the camp not to far. "And we get paid to go look at them!" He looked back at the others trailing behind them. "Come on, kids!"

Many of the young teens and Sabrina followed the archeologists up an island mesa, where they were greeted with the sight of an old, stone city that has stood the test of time despite the faded colors and cracked and broken walls with many mold and shrubbery growing atop and around all of them.

It was quite the place, and everyone was quick to explore the area as long as they weren't alone or unsupervised.

Ash, wanting a chance to see fossilized Pokemon, followed Spencer and Molly Hale down towards a specific area past what looked to be the main temple of the ruins with Sabrina and Riolu not too far behind.

"So what is this place?" Ash asked while he looked at the stone structures that seemed so old, you could almost mistake how it was still all kept together by magic.

"A fascinating thing really, it's believed to be a ruin dated back to the time of Pokelantis."

Sabrina couldn't help but get distracted by the name of the ancient kingdom. Considering the last time she was anywhere near something related to Pokelantis, she was also attacked by a mysterious group of ancient warriors. So it stood to reason that she was now on guard with the possibility of being attacked once more.

"There's a room I want to show you, Ash and Molly. Come this way." The archeologist with Entei styled hair lead the group deeper into the old ruins.

The room was large but dark, as Mr. Hale put on some special equipment nearby, the room lit up with a large, somewhat faded mural.

It was majestic to say the least, to see art preserved for years before even the time ancestors were capable of math.

"There are old writings on these walls besides the pictures." Spencer Hale began as he pointed to some odd symbols near the depictions. "I was sent a rough translation of what's been decoded so far, and it's an interesting tale."

He lead the group over towards a picture of what seemed to look like a Tentacruel. Thing was though, this Tentacruel was depicted to be even larger than the island itself and in the mural, it showed him knocking down buildings and storms surrounding it's large frame.

"Long ago, there was a fearsome giant that threatened the peace of this isle." Hale began before pointing towards the next mural. "Many had tried but couldn't stop the savage giant's path. But a maiden wielding mystical powers barred the titan's total trashing of the time-lost town."

"Daddy," Molly huffed by puffing her cheeks. "Don't do that, it's silly!"

The older man laughed and petted the head of his daughter. "Well, if you insist." Everyone followed the mural to the next part where there was a faded picture of a bright woman clad in holy looking colors. "Now as I was saying, no one knew where the maiden hailed from, all they knew was that she was wielding amazing power. With that power, she sealed away the gigantic Tentacruel and saved the isle. This ruins is a temple created in dedication of this mysterious priestess."

They all saw the final mural depicting the priestess doing so, seemingly trapping the Tentacruel in some kind of artifact.

"And that was why I and my friend were invited over to this site. They needed an extra pair of eyes helping out with excavation and other studies of the area." Spencer Hale finished before looking to the two kids. "And with that, my mini tour is over, you can follow your friends over towards where you can dig up Pokemon Fossils."

"Ooh! Ash, show me your other Pokemon!" Molly was quick to as she grabbed on to the teen's hands and practically dragged him out of the room.

Sabrina saw this and decided to follow her student this time. She didn't trust ruins and supposedly ancient powers.

Ash allowed Molly to lead him back out the temple and into the open court yard. However, before they could begin, Ash noticed someone waiting for them, sitting atop a fallen debris that was under the shadow of a stone totem pole.

Maria Indra Sundance—or Mary as Ash called her for short was gasping for breath and wiping the sweat off her forehead.

"Hey Mary," Ash went to his friend first. "Are you alright?"

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine. I guess my allergies are acting up or something, I just feel a little off." She said as she gasped for air. "I also wanted to wait for you while the others went ahead to see if they could excavate some fossils."

"Thanks, Mary," The raven haired trainer began before Sabrina walked out of the temple and eyed the girl who she 'met'.

The old childhood friend, after finding out the stranger she revealed her secret to was in fact a companion of her best friend, started to laugh nervously—just as she was doing right now.

"Huh, what's so funny?" Ash looked over to his friend, who just seemed to laugh even worse than before.

Sabrina only shook her head. (You poor girl, what do you even see in him?)

As the silver-white haired girl tried to calm herself down, Ash's attention was pulled much like his sleeve as Molly seemed to pout at him. "Can I please see your other Pokemon?"

"Sure thing, Molly!" Riolu jumped off as Ash brought out the rest of his party, revealing Spearow, Jigglypuff, and Prince Nidorino.

The little girl squealed before she made a move to scoop up Jigglypuff and squeeze the puff ball in a vice grip that a little girl shouldn't have been able to pull off. "Aww! This one is sooooo cuuuttteee and round!"

'Yay! A new friend!' While his body was slowly being crushed, Jigglypuff still remained rather optimistic even as his pupils started to roll upward.

"I didn't know you had a Jigglypuff, Ash." Mary stood up from her seat and walked closer towards the group..

"Yeah, he's one of my newest members, pretty strong too despite how he looks." Not very conventional, but Ash was wondering what kind of specialty the pink puff could focus on later.

However, there was one slight problem in that Prince Nidorino was rather aghast that all the attention was not on him.

'Hold! Why is the round one gaining the attention of a crowd and not me!?'

'Apparently,' Spearow pointed with her wing. 'The fleshies seem to have some kind of reaction towards specific objects, calling them this… 'cute' thing. Or so I gather.'

Nidorino's response was to calm down and learn to accept the weirdness of his peers and others. 'I say nay! The cutest in all the land, shall be I, Prince Nidorino! Beholden my cuteness!'

Okay, he didn't actually calm down at all, gathering energy in his Life Orb was actually the exact opposite of what he was supposed to be doing.

Ash noticed this and reacted too late. "Hey, Nidorino!"

Despite his valiant attempt, a second later, the Life Orb light vanished and the poison type fell face first into the floor.

Now just for reminder's sake, Prince Nidorino's Life Orb works a little differently than most of it's kind. Instead of taking a set amount of energy to increase a move a certain amount, Nidorino's Life Orb has no cap. So, if he used up his entire stamina, the attack he was about to use was going to be exemplified by the output poured into it.

Nidorino had just used up all his stamina for a single move.

The raven haired trainer didn't know what was about to happen, but he knew one thing: it wasn't going to be good. "Uh oh."

His reaction was validated as a second later, large Rock Tomb attacks erected in the shape of Nidorino statues.

There were so many of them that they ended up forcing Molly, Ash's Pokemon, and Mary closer to Ash—then the floor gave way beneath them, forcing all of them to fall through the floor.

"Oh come on!?" Sabrina of all people cried out when she saw the kids fall through the hole before another statue of a Nidorino shot out in front of her.

* * *

Falling.

To his potential death.

Again.

Ash Ketchum had heard of the phrase of flirting with danger, but who knew danger could get clingy like this?

"Jigglypuff, help Moly! Spearow, catch Nidorino! Riolu, I need some light, shoot down A Focus Blast below us!"

His Pokemon moved at their trainer's command. Jigglypuff escaped Molly's gasp and puffed up, slowing her descent and saving the girl as Spearow picked up Nidorino by the horn and flew him up. Riolu summoned a Focus Blast and threw it hard downward, which exploded and revealed that they were all falling down fast towards tilted and fallen pillars of some deeper floor.

At that moment, Ash started to gather his psychic energy to slow him and Mary—

"Lycaenidae, Gust!" The silver haired trainer threw down the sphere which opened up to reveal a bug and flying type Pokemon, Butterfree.

The bug type moved fast, already summoning a powerful gust of wind that slowed their descent—but years of being trained in their bodies as well made the two teens veered off and land on two separate pillars long lost to time.

Mary landed on a slanted one and started to slide down. Ash landed on a standing one with a roll, before he ran out of room and forced himself to jump forward and wall kick off another pillar before landing with another roll on solid, old ground.

"Thank you, Lycaenidae," The female trained smiled kindly to the flying type.

'It is no issue, Lady Sundance.' Ash raised his brow at how the Butterfree sounded like a butler, but started to walk over to everyone else as they all landed.

"Is every one alright?" The raven haired boy looked around, seeing everyone accounted for, before looking up. "We sure fell a long way down." As everyone else looked up, the hole they had fallen through was now a small hole up in the darkness.

"W-Where are we?" Molly seemed to still be hugging Jigglypuff, now tightly more than ever, not that the pink Pokemon seemed to mind.

It was rather dark though, even with Riolu lighting up the place with his aura. At then Mary held another Poke Ball and threw it out, "Come on out, Wyvern!"

As the light shot out of her sphere, a Charmeleon appeared. The light of his tail lit up the area much better along side Riolu's aura and everyone was able to see they were in some forgotten pathway.

"I think we're in a deeper floor of the temple my father hasn't found out yet." Mary walked up to the pillar she slid down from. Wyvern the Charmeleon's fire lit up what she was looking at to reveal new markings that they weren't paying attention to before.

She placed a hand on the markings of the pillar. "These seem to match the artwork and style of the work above, but even though it's all faded, the colors here seem more alarming, almost as if they were made for warnings."

At that moment, Mary suddenly seemed distracted by something and put a hand on her head. Ash noticed this and was worried for his best friend.

"You alright?"

"Sorry, I-I thought I heard—it's probably just the sudden drop and rise of blood into my head made me have a little headache. It should go away soon."

Ash made sure to hold on to one of Molly's hands before walking up to Mary. "Well okay, but you sure know your stuff with everything and all like stuff about blood and the ruins."

The silver haired girl scoffed as she turned and was able to give a small smile. "You'd know these things pretty well if you actually paid attention as well as you do in Pokemon Battles."

"Hey, I can pay attention whenever I want to!" The raven haired boy tried to defend himself.

A smile could be seen on Mary's face even in the dark. "Anyway, I think we should move. Usually, I'd suggest we stay in place, but there's a chance there might be traps down here that were activated when we fell. We should have our Pokemon out if we don't already." While saying that, the young teen took out a third Poke Ball and threw it into the air.

A Pikachu was the one to come out of this next Pokemon Ball.

"Oh wow, a Pikachu!" Molly momentarily forgot about the scariness around her to go up towards the adorable electrical mouse Pokemon.

"Ah Molly!" The teen trainer tried to tell the little girl something, but the smaller child was able to hug the electric mouse before she could finish.

'Ack! Hey, let go of me girly!' The Pikachu cried out before electricity sparked out of it's cheek pouches.

Both Mary and Ash started to worry as they knew what the electric type was about to do. However, their actions weren't necessary as something stopped the Pikachu.

'Don't.' An oppressive aura came from Jigglypuff that stopped the gathering energy akin to a axe chopping a wood piece clean in one strike.

The Pikachu swallowed and allowed Mary to continue cuddling without trouble.

"Uh, Ash? What did your Jigglypuff do to stop Proton?" Mary didn't understand Pokemon speech, but even in the dark, she could spot the Jigglypuff do something to stop her electric type.

The boy shrugged his shoulders as he noticed Jigglypuff back to being his usual happy self. And then saw the pink one's eyes widen before happily hopping forward beyond the light source between them.

Everyone followed the pink puff ball and eventually found the path to an elaborate but house size gates that seemed as thick as one.

"Wow," Mary looked up at the door with faded art work. However, Ash noticed his Jigglypuff moving closer to the gap between the two gate stones. "I wonder what's behind such a thing—"

Jigglypuff used Strength. 'Yoom-tah!'

The two gate doors were pushed aside and opened up a path for everyone. As the doors opened, they could feel trapped, time-lost air escape from the gapping space Jigglypuff pushed open.

"You're pretty strong, Jigglypuff." Ash complimented his Pokemon then walked after the excited Pokemon.

'Come on, Team Luckless! We've got to explore this mystery dungeon for treasure!' Ash's Jigglypuff skipped with glee.

"Wait, Jigglypuffs can't do that even with… can they?" After Mary asked that, she took a step forward—only to suddenly feel another head ache spike. It seemed to get much worse than before, but she shook her head and look forward and walked after rest of them.

The group entered through the doors and it was as if they traveled through time. It wasn't just the air that felt older, the room behind those stone gates was preserved. The gold around the colors of the room were as bright and vivid as the day they were painted, the art and symbols looked the same as well. In the back of the room was a staircase that led to a sphere the size of car with odd symbols marked all across with major colors of light blue and two orbs of red sticking out to each side.

There were many jaws and eyes wide open at the sight. Except for Prince Nidorino, he was still out cold.

"Ash—Ash! Look!" Molly pointed over to one side of the wall and the older teen followed her towards a new art work similar to the one that her father showed them earlier.

It showed a new depiction: about the mysterious maiden wielding a half dozen floating objects around her. One of them looked similar to the large orb in the center.

But that's not what caught the young man's attention.

Since this painting was in near perfect condition and gigantic, he noticed that the ancients painted the maiden in a very strange way: she had long, silver-ish white hair and familiar colored ruby eyes.

Ash Ketchum raised his brow. "Hey, Mary, the magic maiden kinda looks like you." A second passed before the young man noticed the distinct lack of response from his book smart friend.

It wasn't just him, everyone else looked away from the painting, except Prince Nidorino, and noticed the other teenage girl was nowhere to be seen.

'Ah! Over there!' Riolu pointed over towards the large marked orb where Mary was walking towards it with a vacant look on her face.

"Mary! Hey, Mary!?" Ash cried out before he bolted after his best friend.

Even though he did so, everyone else noticed the twelve feet long orb starting to glow and hum with a musical, but ominous tone as Mary walked closer towards it with a hand stretched out.

Ash ran as fast as he could, but by the time he caught up, Mary had already touched the orb with the tip of her fingers.

Then the light enveloped the room.

* * *

"We have to go and get them!" Mr. Sundance was understandably upset to find out his daughter was gone.

"Drando, I understand, my daughter is there too. But we both know those four kids can handle trouble that comes their way no matter how often it comes, isn't that right, Ms. Adel?" Mr. Hale asked the punk-themed, red haired girl.

Emily sighed. "You are right: half parts Ash, half parts my uncle—falling from that height wouldn't hurt us especially when we all now have Pokemon with us."

"See?" The calmer archaeologist was quick to reason with his friend.

"Though with Ash, things might dramatically get worse like that one time where Gareth accidentally tripped over a Swinub and we ended up startling a hive of Beedrill who chased us to a field of Electrode and Voltor—"

"WE NEED TO GET DOWN THERE YESTERDAY!"

Mr. Hale slapped his forehead at his friend's understandable but annoying reaction.

"It shouldn't be hard to find them." Sabrina began as she took out a Pokemon ball. "All we need to do is—"

Sabrina stopped talking when an earthquake started to occur. Instead of panicking or getting worried, Sabrina seemingly glared into thin air, as if being very disappointed in someon—it's Ash. She's disappointed in Ash because this has his MO all over it.

At that moment, the temple, and some of Nidorino's statues, collapsed and fell down the edge of the hill and out came a Tentacruel that was twice the size of a skyscraper.

"Is that the Ancient Titan Tentacruel that threatened this isle years ago!? He was real?! And he's been unleashed from his seal from the ancient maiden?! How!?"

Yep, this has the Ketchum Boy's name written all over it. Odd, why could he feel his presence more?

"AT LAST! **"** A booming voice came from the colossal cephalopod-like creature. His volume made everyone clamp their ears as it was akin to hearing a Screech move. "I AM FREE FROM MY PRISON!"

"H-He can talk!?" Sabrina heard the Emily girl cry out. It took her a second to realize the reason why it seemed like even non-metas could hear the giant Pokemon was because there was a familiar sight of a raven haired boy atop the head of the towering water and poison type.

"Mary, are you alright?!" Ash cried out as in the sudden burst of light, he felt the room shift once more. His body moved on it's own and now he was atop of some giant Pokemon while carrying his best friend princess style.

"H-Huh? How did—ASH!?" Shock, confusion, and then to a completely embarrassed form of shock all went through the female teens face within a second as she tried to gather what had happened.

'Ash!' The teen turned back his head to see his and Mary's Pokemon running towards them along with Molly.

"HEY?" The Tentacruel started to lift up some of it's many tentacles above it's head. "IS THERE SOMETHING ON ME?"

Two of the tentacles moved faster than most expected and grabbed the two groups atop its head.

Emily turned to everyone. "Whoever has Pokemon, bring them out now!"

The Tentacruel unfurled his first tentacle, revealing the Pokemon with Molly. When he unfurled the second one, he saw Ash and—

The gigantic giga Tentacruel's eyes widened when his pupils reflected that of Mary.

"IT'S YOOOOOUUUUU!" His voice caused a strong gust of wind that caused many to once more shield their ears and ground themselves so they wouldn't get blown away.

At that instant, Sabrina appeared with her Alakazam while the Kadabra and Mr. Mime appeared on the other tentacle with Molly and the rest. The experienced psychic used a teleport to get everyone out of the grasp of the giant and back to the other trainers on land.

Emily screamed out to those standing there still. "Guys, get ready with your Pokemon! That Giant Tenacruel looks ticked off! Everyone else get to safer ground!"

"Wait. we're going to fight that thing?!" Sola screamed out in panic.

The Tenacruel, who lost sight of everyone, saw them back down in what was left of the temple. When his eyes looked back to Mary, he screamed while raising many of his tentacles high into the sky.

That was the cue for everyone to get ready for an incoming attack. This beast was hyped up as a destroyer of legend by the paintings of old and was only stopped by a being of old ancient magic now long lost to time. Who knows what kind of untold—

"AAAHHH DON'T HURT ME!"

… The over sized Tentacruel… raised his tentacles… only for him to crouch down towards the beach and cover his head while large tears could be seen where his eyes should be.

"PLEASE DON'T HURT ME AGAIN, SCARY LADY! I DIDN'T MEAN IT!"

…

Everyone was at a loss for words. Well… everyone except Ash's Riolu and Molly who walked closer towards the edge while everyone else was too stunned at the weird action.

"Hey, Giant Mister! Are you alright!?" Molly cried out from over the edge.

"Molly, no!" Spencer Hale made a move forward only to stop with fear as the giant Pokemon rose back up with a sniffle.

"N-NO!" The giant water and Poison type leaned in to both the two tiny bipeds and pointed over towards Mary's direction. "THAT LADY OVER THERE IS SCARY!"

"She's not scary, she's super cool and nice!" Molly spoke out with much enthusiasm.

'Yeah!' Riolu raised a paw then pointed over to Ash. 'She's friends with my best friend, so she's not scary.'

"… REALLY?" The Tentacruel made a motion to 'stand' at his full height and eyed over the girl in question. Everyone else was still stunned and wary of whatever move the giant could make, and they were also still baffled as to what exactly was going on at that moment. "HEY, SHE IS KINDA DIFFERENT. I REMEMBER HER BEING TALLER."

The large Tentacruel relaxed, which made everyone else also drop their guard, but still looked utterly confused as to what was happening. They were all briefed that a Giant Tentacruel threatened the isle, but was this really the same one?

"So what happened to you? Were you trapped in that big sphere?" Molly asked the giant without a shred of worry. Perhaps it was a good thing her innocence prevented her from realizing she could be easily crushed by the thing more than a hundred times her size.

"YES! IT WAS HORRIBLE! YOU SEE," The Giant Tentacruel then told an amazingly surreal story.

It was a regular Tentacruel back in ancient times, but it figured out how to go into the isle for short periods of time and ate special berries that grew on this isle that no longer exist in present time. The Tentacruel always came here to eat it's favorite berries… because it was alone and none of the other water Pokemon made fun of him, so he ate a lot of those old berries as stress eating. The weird thing was that one time, Tentacruel went into a deep sleep or hibernation—which was probably due to the berries he ate—and when he woke up, he was massive!

Even though the other water Pokemon made fun of him, when they saw him, they all ran away from the Tentacruel, which made him feel lonelier. When he went back up to his favorite isle, he tried to look for his favorite berries, but instead, there were all these 'TINY PEOPLE AND THIER ROCKS', which meant that while he was sleeping, a colony or tribe were setting up over the Tentacruel's food.

The Tentacruel tried to look for his favorite berries, even climbing up on the island to find them. Everyone just gave confused looks of realization when the Tentacruel explained that while he was looking for berries, he 'accidentally' toppled over some of the rocks of the tiny people while trying to avoid them. He was really trying but there were just so many of them. IT made them all realize the 'destruction' the ancients described, was him just being kinda clumsy.

It was then he saw a bright and shinning light and he saw this scary looking woman before all he saw was darkness.

"IT WAS SO HORRIBLE!" The Tentacruel was dropping tears the size of small pools. "I WAS AWAKE BUT NOT! I MISS MY BERRIES!"

Molly was tender enough to put a hand on a near, resting tentacle and try to rub it affectionately. "Aww it's okay! My dad says we can have food later, you wanna come?"

Spencer Hale's response was to gawk at the thought of treating giant Pokemon to lunch.

"I-I AM HUNGRY!" The sniffling giant managed to say. "BUT THERE'S SOMETHING ELSE: HAS ANYONE SEEN MY SOUND MAKER?"

Everyone looked around each other with confusion.

'What's a sound maker?' Riolu asked.

"OH IT'S NO USE, I LEFT IT AROUND HERE BEFORE I WENT TO MY DEEP SLEEP. IT REALLY MADE FUN SOUNDS WHEN COMBINED WITH MUSIC I MAKE."

Molly gasped, her already huge eyes grew even larger at that moment as she clasped her hands together. "You can play music?!"

There was a change in the Giant as he seemed to actually seem happy. "A LUVDISC TAUGHT ME HOW TO DO IT! IT'S SUPER FUN!"

"Show us! Show us!" Riolu and Molly jumped up at down and chanted at the same time.

"W-WELL… OKAY! I-I THOUGHT OF THIS ONE MYSELF! I HOPE YOU ALL LIKE IT!"

To the further surprise of many, The Tentacruel seemed to pull on his own tentacles with verying degrees of stress. Then four of them started to… strum the giant tentacles… which made a giant, elastic, but guitar like sound.

And soon…

 _What color's the sea?_

 _¡Ay mi amor, ay mi amor!_

 _You tell me that it's red_

 _¡Ay mi amor, ay mi amor!_

 _Where should I put my tentacles?_

 _¡Ay mi amor, ay mi amor!_

 _You say, "put them on your head!"_

 _¡Ay mi amor, ay mi amor!_

 _You make me un poco loco_

 _Un poquititito loco_

 _The way you keep me guessing_

 _I'm nodding and i'm yesing_

At that point Sabrina finally gave up and threw her hands in the air. She started to walk away as the Titanic Tentacruel was now playing some rather good music.

"So," Ash began while everyone now seemed to be enjoying the makeshift convert from the ancient beast. "He's not actually some threatening super Pokemon?"

"No, it's obvious he isn't." Mary beside him watched as all the Pokemon started to gather and dance around near Molly and Riolu. They obviously had a much easier time accepting the fun of all this than the humans.

"Well then!" Drando placed a hand on his daughter' shoulder and a looked towards everyone else as he had their attention. "Let this be a lesson: history is written by the victors. That means at times it can be written wrong, but that never means we should stop learning them. Sometimes, the truth does get unearth and it's worth it more when that does get discovered."

"… Dad," Mary began. "Stop trying to sound cool. You're not. And you're not making any sense."

"Hahaha!" Her father burst into laughter. "I'm just glad your alright, princess. We should call your mom later today, tell her how we're doing. Until then—come on guys! Don't let the Pokemon have all the fun!"

You wouldn't expect Archaeologists to be great party animals, but Ash and his friends found out they could party pretty hard to an ancient music maker.

* * *

Professor Oak let loose a sigh. The Clefairy bunch had tried to dissect his windmill generator with a laser cannon.

After stopping that disaster, he heard the sound of his doorbell ringing.

Professor Oak opened the door and was met with a large black thing.

Professor Oak looked up.

"ARE YOU THE ONE THEY CALL PROFESSOR OAK!?" A booming voice came from the skyscraper-sized Tentacruel staring him down.

Professor Oak didn't realize he was swallowing his own spit till it was dropping fast down his own throat.

"U-Uh uh uh, Yes?!" He shouted out back nervously.

"EXCELLENT! THE ONE NAMED ASH HAS HELPED ME! NOW I SHALL GO TO YOUR NEARBY BEACH AND LEARN OF THIS NEW ERA'S MUSIC—STARTING WITH DUBSTEP!"

The old trainer could only gape as a Giant Tentacruel crossed over Pallet Town towards their nearby coast area, all the while singing, "~ _VOCAL PERCUSSION ON A WHOLE NOTHER LEVEL~COMING FROM MY MIND!~_ "

…

…

"He said Ash, didn't he?" Professor Oak was going to need to lay down. In all of his years of research, he just didn't know how the boy kept sending him all these impossible Pokemon.

* * *

Delia Ketchum watched with a raised brow as a giant Pokemon walked across the vast empty land of Pallet Town while singing a modern song. Most of Pallet Town was curious, but obviously they were all calm at the bizarre sight in front of them due to a certain someone's son.

She shrugged her shoulders and put the tea set on the table. "I heard you recently had a call from both your husband and daughter, Mrs. Sundance, how were they?"

The woman across the table laughed. "Why do you keep calling me, Mrs. Sudance, Delia? What, should I just call you Mrs. Ketchum?"

"But I do love your name," Delia handed her a cup of tea, "Grace is on the other hand kinda a common name."

"Hey!" The brown, kinda fluffy haired, blue eyed woman gasped with fake amounts of being hurt. "I'll have you know my dear old mom thought it was a good name!"

Delia gave a friendly laugh. "It's good, but you have to admit it's also common. I mean, if it wasn't for the fact you used to be a great Rhyhorn Racer from Kalos, I would have assumed you to have an average life."

Grace leaned in and raised her brow. "Are you calling me average?"

Delia sipped her tip for a second and put down her cup. "Girl, I'm calling your cooking skills less than basic."

The two friends laughed at each other after that teasing exchange.

"Why do you have to rub my cooking skills in, Mrs. Restaurant owner?"

"Because I remember the day I had you and Maria over and she cried at how food didn't always have to be burned."

"Ugh, such a traitorous daughter she is. I bet the hospital switched children at birth." Grace joked before she took a sip of her tea.

"I honestly was a bit surprised the girl had white hair and red eyes. You have brown and blue eyes while Drando has dark brown hair and brown colored eyes."

Gracie threw up a hand. "I don't know what's the deal with that! My husband and I just assumed it was some recessive trait from one of our ancestors. Oh, before I forget, this talk of names reminded me of another name I wanted to call Maria before she was born."

Delia blinked. "Really? You had another name for her before she was born?"

Grace gave a soft sigh. "Yeah, Drandy and I decided on two names, one for a boy and girl. But two days before I could give birth, my mother-in-law passed away." She was a little silent as Delia respected her enough to let her continue in her own pace. "I always liked her, she loved me like daughter even before I married the huge nerd. Drandy was especially sad that Maria and his mom never met when they were so close to meeting each other. When we found out our new born baby was a girl, I let Drando name our daughter after his mother, Maria."

It was a bitter sweet story, but… "What was your planned name for Maria?"

Grace looked back at her friend. "I've always loved the name, Serena."

* * *

 **A/N:** So yeah. Once again, I'm sorry for taking so long. I hope you guys still like this story.

Anyway, I return with another weird chapter. The crew visits an isle on the way to Ash's third badge. And there, they all meet a musical giant Tentacruel who can sing and play his own body like an instrument. It's from the Disney movie Coco, a slight twist to the one guitar song so that it could fit with the Tentacruel.

This chapter was supposed to build up some of the upcoming plot points in this story.

I've seen some stories where Ash or some other main character has some kinda of ancient birth right and that's cool for whoever wants to enjoy it, but I wanted to try something just a little different with that approach. I won't say it right now, but if you guys can figure it out, kudos! I'm trying to be a little subtle with some hints, I hope it's not too bad.

Another interesting fact is my inclusion of Spencer and Molly Hale from the Third Pokemon Movie. I thought they have an interesting potential in this made up world of mine and I've also put some details that suggest something as to why Ash here seems to know them more. Can you guys guess what it is?

For those putting the pieces together after reading, you must have found out that 'Maria' isn't actually an OC (Original Character), she's technically an OOC (out of character) Serena. (So she isn't a clone, like I said previously in an old note, she _is_ Serena!)

I've actually combined OC and Cannon characters. Another example besides Maria/Serena is a girl you're all aware of: Sola/Salvia—the Dawn Doppelganger.

Oh wait, If I've brought up Serena, you're all probably wondering what's the pairing, if there is one, in this story?

... It's a secret!

Anyway, I have an idea I want to try out with these 'fused characters' and I hope you all enjoy what I'm going to do with them in the future. And I hope I can make them all entertaining enough.

Have a swell day guys and gals. Just like Professor Oak, lay down and take a nap when it gets a little too crazy.

(Here's a fun little game: take a drink every time I put an alliteration in this chapter. They were super fun to write.)


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